Views of today vs tomorrow

You may have noticed how easy it is to set lofty long term goals, such as New Years' resolutions. We probably start to think about what would be good for us to adopt as part of our life style months before January 1st, with strong drive and optimism that we will be able to accomplish them. We will get up every morning and run five miles before beginning our busy day.  We will resist the apple pie sitting in the refrigerator waiting for someone to eat before it has to be thrown out. We will make the final  decisions and do the tough work of getting a recycling program started in Lewistown finally.

We envision how smoothly these goals will be obtained, with just a little motivation to stay the course.  The visual results of our success will spur us on daily, we are certain.

Then January 1st arrives and we begin to live the reality of our commitment.  It will take hard, consistent work, day in and day out.  We realize that immediate gratification is so tempting and hard to resist when we are confronted by it at the time.  Maybe I'll only run three miles today or maybe I need to sleep in a little just for today.

Or, that pie really shouldn't be wasted.  I could always cut back somewhere else tomorrow and run a couple of extra miles to compensate. But, right now my mind puts those lofty, idealistic goals aside long enough to get that immediate satisfaction that I really don't want to, but wish I did, resist.

Now I have to apply this principle to following through with the completion of the recycling project.  The easy part was envisioning a program that would enable the community to dispose of its waste responsibly.  The easy part was working out how to execute the program.  Now the hard part is making the phone calls to people who have not been as forth coming as I had expected and convincing them to get into gear. 

Knowing that long term goals are easy and that the present reality of today of carrying them out is difficult helps.  Knowing that this is all just part of the human psychic helps.  Keeping these realities in the fore front of my thinking helps me face the tasks and just get them done.  You just have to get through the pain first before you can enjoy the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing the goal compeleted at the end.  And that makes it all worth it.