Delayed Gratification

By Cami Checketts

“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.” Zig Ziglar

We live in a society of instant gratification. Need a question answered? Minutes on the internet and you’ll have more information than you could possibly use. Hungry? Wendy’s will have your dinner ready in minutes. Tired? Drink a Red Bull and you’ll feel pep immediately.

The age of ease could be a good thing for our society, if we took the extra time given us by modern technology and used it for good—spending quality time with family and friends, giving more of ourselves to serve others, exercising, enjoying nature and finding ways to better ourselves and our world.

Sometimes we miss out on the wonderful things in life because we want temporary happiness. I believe it’s it important to teach ourselves and our children to wait, to work hard for a goal, and to realize that we can’t have everything we want.

Patience is a virtue for many reasons. Not everything in life is going to come at the snap of our fingers. We’re going to face trials and hard times, if we haven’t learned to be patient in afflictions; our suffering will be quadruple what it should be.

The Lord wants us to learn to labor and feel good about what we produce. There is much satisfaction in a job well done. Success that comes quickly usually leaves just as quickly.

How does this translate into health and fitness?

It’s possible to lose weight quickly with crash diets, but 99 times out of 100 that weight will come back just as quickly (usually with some extra pounds to boot). It’s possible to take some crazy drug or shot to lose weight, but are you willing to risk the side effects that could stick with you for life?

Are you trading what you want most for what you want NOW?

What most of us want is to be healthy and fit for life. To be able to play with our children or grandchildren without aches and pains. To feel good each morning as we roll out of bed. To look halfway decent in a pair of jeans.

To achieve these goals we’ll need patience, hard work, and a little bit of know-how. We’ll need to realize that though we might want to push the snooze button for the third time, we need to get out of bed and get our workout done. Instead of reaching for that second brownie (I know it looks like heaven) we’ll have to say NO to ourselves and think about our long-term goals instead of letting our taste buds rule the kitchen. When we’re exercising and want to quit, maybe we need to push ourselves even harder (within reason, of course) and someday soon we’ll realize that the extra sprint on the spin bike or the extra set on the bicep curls is really paying off.

I hope each one of us can try a little harder to deny ourselves some luxuries and treats once in a while. If we do, we’ll realize how good it feels to conquer ourselves as we delay gratification.

Cami Checketts’ latest novel, The Sister Pact, is in stores now. For more information, please refer to her website–www.camichecketts.com. Cami shares fitness articles on her blog http://fitnessformom.blogspot.com.