I saw a story a couple of weeks ago about an extremely overweight dog. It could barely walk and because of this, its owner took it to the vet to be put down. The vet saw life in him and found a foster mom who was willing to take on the challenge of helping him back to health by losing the many extra pounds he was carrying. When she first brought him home, he could barely get up the steps and into the house. However, she slowly worked with him every day to get him back into shape and feeling more like a happy dog than a struggle and burden. It was not that her goal was for him to loss the extra 100 pounds he was carrying, but to take it day by day and accomplish what they could. She learned that it was in the baby steps that the goal was achieved. It was not in the overarching, and seemingly impossible task the the goal was accomplished. Instead, it was in the discipline and small achievements.
I find inspiration for myself in this story. It is a reminder to me to not focus on the lofty goals I set for myself. Instead to set the bar a little lower. To take things day by day and celebrate the little wins. Instead of overlooking small accomplishments just because they are not as great, but to celebrate them. If we set the bar too high for ourselves, the goal becomes the whole focus. When the goal is not reached, it leads to disappointment and giving up. However, if you take baby steps and look at each day as a new goal, the bar is not as high and easier to reach.
Instead of telling myself I’m going to lose fifty pounds, I tell myself I’m going to lose five pounds. I have to discipline myself not only to stick to my goals but also to not beat myself up when things aren’t going the way I think they should. It also takes forgiveness for myself when I feel I have not been as disciplined as I should.
Being able to forgive ourselves is an important part to meeting goals as well. If we cannot forgive ourselves we end up beating ourselves up over little things instead of seeing the wins as they come and celebrating them.
Just as the dog in the story was able to take baby steps to achieve his goal of weight loss, we too can take baby steps to achieve whatever goals we have. Sometimes it takes little reminds of from our four-legged friends to remind of this.