Failure is just life giving you feedback

So as soon as I hit "publish post" on that last blog entry I sought help from (where else?) the internet.

And I learned a few things.

Number one: Plato is quoted with these words of wisdom, "The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile."

Now, I have no clue how I am to both conquer myself while avoid being conquered by myself, but the words resonate in me somehow. Like, I shouldn't let myself defeat myself. Something along those lines...

Next, I learned there are three ways to deal with failure. Number one is to lay blame, make excuses and give up. This seems very attractive, saying that my problem is my sleep schedule, that my in-laws do the grocery shopping, that I have no time/energy/will-power, that I need a gym membership if I ever hope to lose anything, etc. But it's all bullshit. I may not have control over a lot, but I do have control over my health, for the most part. I have control over the lifestyle choices I make, what I put in my mouth, whether or not I get up and get moving and so forth. And I want to lose this weight, so I refuse to resign myself and let outside forces become my crutch. No excuses.

The second way of dealing with failure is to try harder. To refuse to quit and try again. This option isn't attractive to me at all. I know the first sign of madness is to do the same things over and over and expect a different outcome. My 2010 plan for weight loss (obviously) didn't work. Why would I do the exact same thing I did over the course of the last 12 months and expect that by this time next year I'd be in any different position? That would be madness.

And that is why I choose to deal with my "failure" the third and final way, by understanding that failure is just feedback. It's feedback on what didn't work - it's the universe showing me that I need to tweak my approach and try something new.
Maybe my "something new" will work. Maybe it won't. If it doesn't, that's just the universe giving me MORE feedback.
Eventually, I'll find what works.

I'm optimistic because my last post started out right! I'm going to try something new. I'm very excited to purchase my Wii Fit and I want to lose that first ten pounds! I want my rewards!
More later.