Afraid to Be Willing?
I read this week a comment on another website that procrastination was one of the key detriments to accomplishment in any arena. Mostly, the author’s arena is “business.” My arena, as you well know, is helping the world’s women to come to comfortable terms with their bodies.
It was dramatically brought to my attention today the degree that willingness plays in accomplishment as well as the idea of procrastination. They seem like kissing cousins to me.
I work with another support person for one of my virtual assistant clients who had asked that an entire project be sent “all together” before he began his work. I did that after having to change my normal procedure to accommodate his request. He then kvetched because the format wasn’t to his liking and he’d have to spend hours to re-convert it to another format. I told him to get permission from the client and I (can see see the willingness?) would do the conversion. His “hours” took me 18 minutes. And before I could get back to posting this blog, he was still complaining about the NEW formatting. Geesh!
Now, as I write this, the adrenaline from my anger over his lack of willingness permitted me to see this pattern in myself: procrastination (a bit of it) and willingness (a lot of it) and I got the job done. I am now in the process of stopping the nasty thoughts about this support person’s lack of willingness and the abundance of my own. I’m sharing it with you as part of the emotional drain inside me.
With a high degree of willingness, you can accomplish a lot in a little bit of time. And sometimes, it makes big jobs small. So, when it comes to your project of changing your sense about your body from unacceptable and disappointing to acceptable and satisfying, how willing are you to do this work? Does it appear like a huge project to you? I suspect that, like me in my example above, the hours and hours will whittle down to scant minutes because of the willingness. Here’s what I’d recommend:
- Make a list of what good benefits your body accrues for you today, right now. You ARE getting from place to place, right? You CAN extend your hand for a paycheck regularly, right? You DO feed your family and maintain your household, right? Well those are just the basics. You can create a much longer list, I know for certain and for sure.
- Every day, thank your Self for providing those benefits for yourself. Tell yourself that those benefits would have occurred whether you had a large or a small body. Let yourself know that, as in this one example, the size of your body is irrelevant and arbitrary. If somebody has a negative opinion about the size of your body, and you have adopted it as God’s honest truth, step back and let only them own their misbegotten opinion. Let it bite them in the ass, not you. Has it ever occurred to you that their opinion is sick, small, uninformed, and neurotic? You don’t need that opinion as part of you.
When I say “Ever day…” I mean every day. Sit down in the quiet you have created and think about the benefits your body brings to you three times a day for fifteen minutes. Think back about the thoughts that go on inside your mind that eventually created that body for you. If you want to change your body, you’ve got to get to those thoughts so you can change them. Then, because your body is the automatic report card for your Mind’s thinking, the will reflect a new grade.
Want a head start on doing this work? Read my book “My Cats Have Seen Me Naked.” Get the Workbooks that accompany it. The questions inside those workbooks represent over 60years of experience and will help you get inside and learn to love and accept yourself more fully. I think it’s mandatory to share with others what you’ve learned on this earth experience and I wrote what I’ve learned down for you. Hope you enjoy it.
Love,
Pat
