spirals

Why is it that when life gets going at a whirlwind pace, some of the basic things begin to fall by the wayside?

Let's take for example the need to exercise. About five years ago I was in a place where I got up every weekday morning at 4:30am and drove to Buford to exercise with about 20 people. Granted, I was in the police academy, but still, I was there every morning but one (That was when my car died on the highway and Big C came to the rescue at 5 in the morning). I would run and do all sorts of strength and conditioning drills. It was winter time, and even when it was 20 degrees outside, I was still there. Once I started working on the mean streets of Norcross, I continued to exercise and try to stay in shape. Then two years ago, I was made a detective. This was the beginning of the end of exercise and eating right. It was a different pace with different stressers and the influence of "seasoned veterens" to eat at "The Golden Trough" regularly. Inside of 18 months, I had gained back most of the weight I had lost in the academy. It was a vicious cycle that I tried half-heartedly to break. Recently, I have hit this issue head on and am being purposeful about exercising and eating better.

A couple of weeks ago my bride and I started a relation spiral dowhill. Nothing major, just life. The boyz, work, the house, the schedule. A missed opportunity to be sweet to one another, a miscommunicated thought or word, expectations that were never met. All of a sudden, we both found ourselves feeling that we weren't doing okay with each other. But we didn't say anything at that moment...or the other moments that I know presented themselves. So the cycle didn't break until the other night when we talked through things. Now we have to be intential about pulling out of the funk we have been in.

When negative cycles like these and thousands of others creep up in our lives, there are a few words that need to be applied to how we deal with those cycles - intential, purposeful, vigilant, honestly. One can't deal with negative patterns half-heartedly, otherwise the desired results will not be acheived. Positive change will never be acheived by maintaining the status quo.

May you see that true change in your life comes through the ideas of hard work, elbow grease and blood, sweat and tears.