A - Action & Achievement

Bear with me for the next 26 or so post.  I am doing an A to Z blogging challenge (my first challenge!).  If you know me, I LOVE a good challenge, so this is right up my alley!

So, to my readers, I bare my thoughts on topics A to Z…..

 Action and Achievement go together.  One must occur to get to the other.  Point A to point B.

You can’t get to achievement very easily, if you perform no action.

I shake my head, roll my eyes and sigh deeply daily, when I see postings on facebook for “miracle weight loss in 7 days”, “flat abs in 2 days” and what not. 

There is NO miracle weight loss remedy.  If there were “everyone” would be doing it.  The only good way to do this is to take action.  Blah blah blah Cambodia Garcia or whatever it is - not the miracle cure.  Sorry.  

As a health advocate, I often hear excuses from people who are unhealthy , but “can’t” get healthy because of a myriad of excuses.  

I’m not saying I never make excuses.  I may or may not have slept in on a Saturday morning when I told my frunners I’d go running with them (sorry).  There have been others.

But, I roll my eyes when the overweight diabetic I'm case managing tells me on the phone that he “can’t get out and exercise because of the kids”.   

Come again? 

If you don’t take action, there will be no achievement.

Walking is free.  Kids love riding bike.  Throw the football around.  Turn the radio on and dance and sing.

Be active.  

I say to this man: your diabetes is not going to go away on its own because you take medication to control your blood sugars (in this case).   You have to take action.  Action = achievement.

I decided one day I wanted to run a marathon – I took action to figure out what I needed to do to be able to do that.  When I took on this task, I could not run a mile straight.  I could barely run around the block.  It took a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, but I achieved it, not overnight, then repeated nine more times.  I found it involved a lot more than just going out and practicing running. I feel like I have so much more to both learn & achieve.

I want to be a Nurse Practitioner.  Since they aren’t handing out NP degrees to just anyone, I had to take action.  I applied to the two schools..  I was denied admission at the first one.  Tough blow.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I am a part of the inaugural class of NP’s at the college I attend now; forging the way for others.  I love my school. Looking back, I’m happy I wasn’t accepted by school #1.  Even though not being accepted was a bit of a set-back, I persevered.   I have to give up things now and then to work towards achievement, but every day is one day closer to graduation.  My son is incredibly proud of me and thinks it’s cool that I will what he calls a “nurse doctor”.  

While I know this sounds incredibly “preachy”, I just want you to know that you can achieve most anything you set your mind too (I know it sounds cliché, but it’s for reals!).  Make a plan.  Write it down.  Tell other people.  Put it “out there”.  Find people who will hold you accountable and ask your plan.  

But most importantly, SHARE with everyone you ACHIEVEMENT.  Bask in the praise for the accomplishment you have attained.  It isn’t selfish or self-centered, it is inspiring.  Someone else may look at you and think, if they can do it, maybe I can too.  But first, you must do the “action” to get yourself there.

Stepping off my soapbox now….

So tell me….what kind of actions are you taking towards what you want to achieve?