Back in the day when I took music lessons, there was a
sign hanging up in the waiting room which read:
"If I miss one day of practice, I notice it.
If I miss two days of practice, my friends notice it.
If I miss three days of practice, EVERYONE notices it!"
I was reminded of that advice learned so many years ago
as I sat in the dentist's chair today. (You just never
know when these pearls of wisdom will come in handy, do
you?)
You see, I missed more than a day or two of flossing
since my last checkup six months ago. And EVERYONE in
that dentist's waiting area, and probably everyone else
in that office building, KNEW it because that little
cleaning and scraping tool never stopped for the full
30 minutes I was in that chair. (I think the good
doctor charged me a bit extra for leaving grip marks in
his arm rest).
So for the next 19 days I'll be a good boy and brush
after each and every meal... and follow that up with
floss and a 30 second rinse with the industrial
strength mouth wash - you know the kind that makes you
wish you were back in the dentist's chair.
Lord knows, I should do it for 21 days because that's
how long it takes to become a HABIT! Fortunately, (or
unfortunately, depending on your perspective) it only
takes me a couple of days to get over the intense pain
of the visit.
Give me another two weeks and the only thing I'll
remember is that FLOSSING is a real pain! I mean, come
on... I'm usually in a rush to get out of the house and
a quick once-around-the-mouth with the brush is all I
have time for, right? And bedtime... forget it. I
barely have enough energy to get the cap off the
toothpaste, let alone USE the stuff. One more minute
to floss? You gotta be kidding me!
Seriously though, for just a couple of extra minutes a
day, I could AVOID a full 30 minutes of pain (or
worse!) six months from now.
And so it is with our goals. How easy it is to miss a
day here and there, and how quickly those single days
escalate into two and three days off until six months
later we are reminded, "Hey, wasn't this once a goal?"
See if you can find a way to break your goal down into
one minute fragments, and make a vow right now to do that
one minute a day at the very least! Six months from
now, you will be a minimum of two hours closer to your
goal than you are right now. And who knows, two hours
may be all you need to break through your success
barrier.
Gotta go brush and floss!
Got a nice clean smile in Toronto,
Russ
Posted by russhamel
