Spoons to Bulldozers

Spoons to Bulldozers 4/5/09

Does it feel like this process is taking a long time? It may feel like you are a prisoner digging an underground tunnel with a spoon. It sounds like it takes too long. A successful plan requires a blueprint, tenacity, checking and rechecking every detail, thinking and praying and digging every day. It sounds so tough and hopeless, but on the day you hit your goal and see the sun at the end of the tunnel and you are free you will forget the daily grind and grueling pain you felt using that spoon to move that dirt. The key to enduring this process is to set the short term goals. You have to plan to dig so far each day (exercise so long each day, eat healthy each day, etc.) If one day you aren't up to the full length of the plan, relax a little that day, but get back on your hands and knees and tunnel through the next day. Each inch (step towards the goal) brings you closer to the light (goal).

The hopelessness will diminish as you get closer and closer to the end. When your goal is within your vision you become hopeful and invigorated. As you reach that goal you must then set another goal. Once you are out of the tunnel and in the light and free, you must find a new goal to work towards to stay on top. You have broken out of the prison and now you must live a productive life. In terms of our surgery, we must maintain.

Your 1st goal may not be your ultimate goal. Just to bring this in focus I will use myself as an example. It's much easier that way, but you can tweak my example to fit you personal situation. My ultimate goal is to lose a total of 152 pounds. If I were to make that my only goal I would get very discouraged. So I have set several smaller goals. Several of them I have already attained and that has boosted my reserve to continue the hard work to dig towards the end of that tunnel. I am struggling with a "big" smaller scale goal that I just can't seem to reach on the time frame I planned. I wanted to be below 200 pounds before April, but I haven't made it yet. I have had a couple of weeks of set backs. This week I am teetering on the edge. I know I will hit it; I just have to be patient, have tenacity and drive to keep tunneling. I have to recheck my plan and figure out what I am doing that is holding me on the edge. That doesn't mean I give up my steps to get to the smaller goal in order to get to the ultimate goal. My hopefulness is still very strong. I get that strength from my many supports. From the many encouragements and compliments from my supporters. I keep patting myself on the back. I keep rechecking my progress, reevaluating my plan, making sure I am on track. Sometimes the tunnel veers off at an unexpected angle and I have to dig back to the original plan or I have to adjust my plan to work with the circumstances at hand, but I continue to dig and make progress.


Spoons seem like such a small tool in your toolbox, but remember the tool you have is a smaller stomach. As you progress in your healthy lifestyle, you may feel like your toolbox presents a shovel (confidence, drive, hopefulness). Then as you become stronger in your will power and your tenacity and your desires and your goal seeking, your tool may become a bulldozer. You barrel through more exercises; more intense exercise and you feel better which in turn gives you more confidence. Do you see where this is going? Soon you will be at your ultimate goal, maintaining your healthy lifestyle and doing things you haven't been able to do in years. You will have the health you always desired and the contentment and drive to continue upward. It may take 5 years, 10 years and a lifetime to live the life you deserve, but remember, it all started with a spoon!

This scenario can work for any goal you may have in your life. A new career, a new relationship, maybe even a new dream. Just keep planning and digging and the progress will bring forth a blessing!


This concept and thought process was put in motion by a reading from "Financial Peace Revisited" by Dave Ramsey



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