On the Raw: Plateaus
The more time that goes by, where I advance both my goal of losing weight long term, and of becoming an author, the more that I notice both pursuits are identical. Both take the application of daily routine, the necessary long term vision to guide you through the rough patches, and the ability to forgive yourself for the occasional short-fall, so long as you are willing to get back up and try again. These practices also share another aspect, one which is far from fruitful or helpful. Both writing and exercise have plateaus.
It is remarkably easy to reach a point with writing where you feel that you are doing nothing more than spinning your gears for no gain. You write, endlessly, day by day, and aren’t noticing any uptick in readership. You haven’t yet had a short story or a post go viral. Nothing that you’ve done has been remarked on by others, or been recognized by the men and women that you respect. So far as the world is concerned, you haven’t written anything at all. Yet you sit, day in and day out, fingers to keyboard, writing for all that your heart and your soul are worth. You pour all that it is to be you, all that it means to be alive, and channel all of your anger and frustration and desire into the words that you put to paper. It doesn’t matter yet. Not that it doesn’t matter at all, not that practice and dedication are worthless. You’re just stuck at the start, waiting for things to take off that never do. It’s never an easy position to find yourself in, and there is nothing you can do to really leave that area. You simply have to keep your head down, and continue writing for all you are worth. I know that, because that’s where I find myself. I have the desire, the dedication, and the ability to imagine new realities which are necessary to be a good author. I just have to keep going. It’s the hardest thing that we can do when we feel that there is no progress being made. The honest truth is that progress is being made, I’m just too close to it to see that. Writing daily is not an easy task. It is not something that just anyone can do. It takes a level of work ethic and self delusion that is uncanny, to say the least.
And that leads me to weight loss, where I am in the exact same position. I have been sitting at or near the 230’s barrier for a good long while now. It’s frustrating, because over the course of this year I’ve lost over 45 pounds. It’s been amazing, and something that a very select few human beings are capable of. Further, I have managed to keep it off, which is yet another concern for weight loss. So I’m on track, my diet is on track, and my health is on track. But I want to keep the pounds going down. I want to keep watching my weight fall off. And it isn’t cooperating. That doesn’t make my efforts in vain, that doesn’t mean that I’ve somehow ‘failed’ at weight loss. It just means I’m on a plateau. It also means that I just have to keep working. As hard as that is, as nauseating as it may be to endlessly watch my diet and work out without seeing results, I just have to keep going. The only other option is to backpedal, and that is simply unacceptable.
Plateaufully,
Justin
