I know I’ve said this before, but in my opinion mindset is even more important than having a great deal of knowledge. When you have the right mindset, everything’s easier. You’re not fighting with yourself. Decisions have more glue.
Without having the right mindset and exercising it, I can spend all day eating chocolate at my computer and reading other people’s information about diet, health, a good life. I can get steadily fatter and unhealthier while reading the best information in the world. So knowledge is only power when it’s acted on in the right way. You can have all the best information of the day at your fingertips but if you don’t use that knowledge, put it into practice—live it, it’s worth very little.
Putting anything into practice can have its difficulties. But one day when you wake up with even an inkling of the right mindset, put aside everything you possibly can and work with that little gem. Its value is above rubies!
Yesterday I woke up with that inkling. As gemstones go, it was a fairly small ruby … but it was there, glinting in the darkness. I made cheese/ham and salad sandwiches and packed fruit and biscuits for the one who has to be at work by 6.30am and while the salad container was out I made two plates of salad for the two of us who eat lunch at home. While I was in the kitchen—and before doing anything else with my day—I cooked up mince in the frying pan with a little tomato paste and poached a big chicken breast. I took a pear and a banana in with me to my office and made a solemn promise I wouldn’t eat any chocolate that morning. Don’t laugh. I often have chocolate for breakfast. While in the kitchen I had made a fruit and spinach smoothie with some extra goodies in it so I had that for breakfast while sitting at my desk. This is never enough for me (hence the huge blocks of chocolate lurking in the office) so I had the banana as well. For morning tea I toasted a piece of essene bread instead of chocolate or biscuits. Later in the day after a lunch of salad with a sprinkling of poached chicken, I had a small apple instead of chocolate. And then I ate some chocolate. But at least I’d stemmed the chocolate tide a little by doing without it in the morning. My eating choices were pretty good apart from the chocolate (still a lot by other people’s standards, but good for me), a glass of non-alcoholic wine and a hot chocolate drink at bedtime.
Bugger perfect. Better is what I’m looking for. And having easy choices for ‘better’ is a great way to go. If you have your healthy options made, or at least started, it seems much easier to follow through. But I could just as easily just toddled back to bed for that hour I spent in the kitchen and let my little ruby sink into oblivion. It was only a tiny feeling, after all. How much good could it possibly do? I could have had that fleeting feeling and ignored it because chocolate is a lot easier to eat than the healthy options I did manage to include.
These ruby experiences can start out as just moments, but they have a certain energy that can help carry you through times when your negativity or cravings usually win out. When you find a little ruby, use it. Polish it, admire it, stroke it. Do whatever you can to keep it right in front of you so it can help you to make some of the best decisions of your life … and carry them through.