I have it on good authority that when I was a baby learning to crawl then learning to walk, I didn’t give up at the first obstacle.The fact that I couldn’t do it right straight away apparently didn’t phase me. Not being perfect the first time I tried wasn’t an issue. And then I wasn’t perfect the second time I tried. Or the seventy-second time, I suppose. (Well, maybe I got it right a few times in between. I’m not that slow a learner!)
So when I do things less than perfectly now or I have a major fall from grace, the lesson is clear. I need to let go of my learned behaviours and revert to the attitudes of my babyhood, when what I had to do was clear in my mind and there was never any question that I was going to keep trying until I got it right.
If I can regain that steadfast focus I had as a child, a fall will simply be the trigger for renewed determination. It will not be a failure—just a fall. As old Winston Churchill said, “Never give up.” Or to put it in American author Maya Angelou’s words, “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”
That’s why, although I’m less than perfect every day, I keep showing up, thinking about my health and trying until I get it right. Making new habits with food takes time. It may take many falls. I think it really is a case of get over it, get up and get on with it.