Drift

A pastor friend once said in a sermon, “we don’t drift toward excellence”. When you stop to think about it, this is so true. How does this practically apply to the way we live? We’ve got to prioritize the things, goals, habits, and mindsets that are most important to us, and commit to working on them regularly.  

As a young adult I struggled with disordered eating and compulsive over exercising. Because this is an area where I am susceptible, I know I can’t let up on maintaining deliberate spiritual, mental and emotional practices that help me guard against it. Things like diversifying my exposure to body type images. Like resisting the urge to count calories or fixate too much on what I eat. Like making myself take total rest days where I don’t exercise at all. And of course talking to myself in healthy ways. Have I been tempted to “diet” or restrict calories sometimes? Yes. Have I had some degree of anxiety about gaining weight? Yep. Have I occasionally wished I was given a different body type? Definitely. But because I choose not to “coast”  or drift I have not relapsed since being in recovery. And for that I am so grateful. 

I can also think of a specific area in my life where I made the decision to “coast”, or drift. I spent my teen and young adult years working hard on music and vocal performance. I even got a music scholarship for college. At one point, however, I dropped all of it. I kept singing, but I stopped honing my craft through lessons, and deliberate practice. I decided I had worked hard for so long and that I would just coast for a while. If I could go back, I would tell myself to keep working, practicing and moving forward. I’ve definitely drifted backwards. 

So what things, people, relationships and goals are most important to you? Where are you susceptible? While we can’t do it all and we must certainly give ourselves permission to rest when needed, we also cannot “coast” and expect to keep moving in a desired direction. We just won’t drift toward the places we want to end up. 

The beautiful thing is, even if we find ourselves adrift, it’s never too late to recalibrate and get back on course. 

Xo, 

Kara

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