Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about changing routines as a result of the beginning of the school year? One of the changes that I made was that I have been journaling daily. The journal that I am using is primarily focused on gratitude, but it also provides a daily quote and an associated writing prompt to get the day started. On Tuesday morning, this was the quote that was provided for me, and it just happens to be one of my favorites! (However, I have always heard this quote attributed to Lou Holtz, the legendary Notre Dame Head Football Coach, and not to Lena Horne...)
Regardless of who gets credit for dropping this little bit of wisdom, I love this simple phrase because it is applicable to so many different aspects of our lives. This quote can apply to an emotional burden that you may be, figuratively, carrying. Or it can be applied to the physical burden that you may, literally, be carrying. The open-ended writing prompt on this page allowed me to interpret the quote how I wanted, on that day. Some days we feel like we are carrying the weight of an emotional burden, and on others we may feel like we are carrying the physical burden. That burden may change from day to day.
Today we are going to focus on the physical load that we must carry. We all have physical burdens that we must carry with us, but some are larger, and some are smaller. The size of the burden that you are responsible for carrying is likely due to things that have happened in your past.
Some of us carry the burdens of athletic injuries that occurred in our adolescence. Some carry the burden of the weight that we gained when the time that we used to spend on exercise in our youth gets redirected into hours sitting in the library studying or sitting at a desk as we begin our careers. Some carry the burdens of the changes that women's bodies endure during pregnancy. Some carry the burden of extended hours while sitting at a desk for their current job.
Regardless of your past and the burdens that you are carrying right now, it is time to make a change. There is no better time than the present to lighten that load as much as you can.
Make the decisions today that will help you tomorrow. Choose to move where you can. Choose to put more vegetables on your plate. Choose water instead of soda or alcohol. Choose to go to bed rather than staying up to watch a show that you are not even paying attention to anyway.
As we say to our children -
It is never the wrong time to do the right thing.
