The Revitalization of my Life--Day 41

Today, I start yet another early morning trying to break the cycle. I woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to take advantage of the extra time. When I started getting ready, I noticed that I was looking a little rugged so I decided to trim myself up a little. You see, I am growing a beard and it is not easy to have. You have to maintain it in order to make yourself look presentable. While I was trimming it and lining it up, I had this crazy thought. I started thinking about life. I know that it's weird to think about life while trimming your beard, but I did. I started thinking about how it takes time to get things within our life done. Just like the growing of my beard. In the first stage, you have to get through the itching and the looking rough. It's never easy starting anything. Not even a beard. Then the next phase is smooth sailing. Once you get a little growth, you tend to look better because no longer do you have a five o'clock shadow, you have definition and it's not rough looking. At this stage, I love it. But then comes the next phase. This is the most crucial stage of them all. Once the beard gets to the point where you have to maintain it by combing it and trimming it more often so that you can look presentable; its trouble. This is the phase where most people cut it off. It becomes too much trouble. No one wants to spend a little time grooming a beard, especially a man.

This is just like the goals in our life. At certain points, they get to be too much. Once we achieve them we have to maintain them. Maintaining our success can sometimes be harder than getting there. When I say success, I am talking about everything and anything that you have succeeded at. Maintaining weight loss, it's harder than actually losing weight. Maintaining a healthy marriage is harder than the courtship. All of these things are harder once you get them but there is a key to making it easier. The key to maintaining your success is remembering. Remember how you were before you succeeded. Remember what you had to endure to obtain your success. Remember how you felt before the success. Then ask yourself, "Do you really want to go back to being the way you use to be?" This thought will rejuvenate you desire to maintain and it will make your maintenance seem like nothing compared to what you had to do to get to maintaining.

I know that this is a weird comparison, but I had to speak about what I know and I know about growing a beard. If you are a woman just substitute the beard with your hair and substitute growing with getting done. You might be able to better understand it then. Main point, don't let the maintenance of your success destroy the actual success that has been achieved. Take it by the horns and just do it. Keep it up and then one day you will realize that the maintenance is no more than a simple part of your daily routine that doesn't really require as much effort as you thought...remember to remember!

"Don't let the maintenance of your success destroy the actual success that was achieved"-K.J Swint