in the storm...

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What a heck of a year we have ahead!

I’ll be emailing you throughout the year, checking in, often talking about “Good Day Strategies” to help with weight loss and maintenance, but if this is bugging you, be sure to unsubscribe.

I have an image for you today. 

This is really simple, and one to really ponder.

It’s about water run-off in a storm.

If you’ve been out in a storm, with rains pouring, you’ll see the rain water pooling and collecting and running down little temporary troughs, into spontaneous little creeks as it makes its way to bigger creeks and rivers… OR… pouring right into your basement or patio.

It happens.

That water goes where it wants and “where it wants” is wherever is easiest and whatever path it found in the last storm.

The water rushes right through, carving a bigger and bigger path with each storm.

How do you keep the water from flooding your house?

How do you redirect it properly to flow into a storm drain or a creek bed?

This often takes some time and forethought.

On our property, we had water pool on a corner of our house for a few years. It wasn’t a whole lot of water unless the storm was a big one. When a big storm came, I would go out in a rain jacket and shovel that water so that it wouldn’t pool at our foundation.

THEN…I got smart and organized. I took the time one early fall to install a drain and redirect the water away from the house. Rain water now irrigates a flower bed rather than threaten a house.

Here’s the thing: So many of our behaviors in life are like these little storm run-off systems. When a crisis hits in our lives, the proverbial rain waters flow and if we haven’t set up a drainage system, we get flooded.

It’s how we’ve gained all the pounds: It storms, we eat, we get fatter. It storms again, we eat again, we get fatter. It is the rain water hitting those run-off systems.

It will keep happening unless we actively redirect the flow. It takes actively redirecting our activities to break the cycle.

The fact is that each of us need to get out and work on those drainage systems and change the flow. We need to be building a whole new system of responses. Change doesn’t “just happen,” just like my storm drain didn’t magically appear. I had to recognize the problem, make a plan, and implement the plan to redirect that storm water.

It’s an on-going process, but it does build on itself and all of those little systems make life easier.

Take some time this week to reflect on what you can do in advance of future storms.

Go be awesome!

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