What is a defining moment?
I’m not sure a concrete definition exists for the term, but to me a defining moment is an instant in time that influences your future course of actions and outcomes to a significant degree. In basketball, this might be a shot at the buzzer from half-court to win the final game of the championship. On the track, it might be running the 100 meter sprint faster than any human has before. In your career, it might be working your way up the corporate ladder until you finally land that promotion that puts your family’s financial concerns to rest.
Events of this magnitude clearly make a powerful difference in people’s lives… they get loads of attention too.
Our society tends to focus on these events. This extreme emphasis seems to mute or blunt the actual steps or moments that lead to the opportunity to make game winning shots in the championship game. This, I believe, perpetuates the desire for instant gratification that plagues so many who set out to accomplish great things.
Expecting instant success or greatness will trip up those even with the best or most powerful of intentions. A lack of management, when it comes to your expectations, can rob the wind right from your sails.
For the basketball player, it took a lifetime of practice and dedication to reach the pros and win a championship. Thousands upon thousands of shots were taken. Some were made, some were missed. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours were spent learning and refining the game. It’s the accumulation of many small moments that made the buzzer-beating shot of the championship game a possibility.
So my question is simple: what’s more powerful in terms of reaching personal greatness? Is it the actual winning shot or is it the blood, sweat, tears, hours, and consistency in the face of defeat? Is it the moment where all things come together in a display of awesomeness or is it the small, seemingly insignificant steps you take every single day to progress towards “higher ground?”
Very few get rich, thin, or famous overnight. Those who do, usually bask in their instant glory much shorter than they’d like.
Every second of every day possesses the ability to be a defining moment if you so choose, in my opinion. This holds true more for weight loss than just about anything I can think of. In the weight loss game, we aren’t given the chance to hit that game winning shot. Instant stardom isn’t a possibility since losing weight is an exercise in perseverance and consistent effort over large expanses of time.
I’m not suggesting you must be “on” 100% of the time. We all need to unwind and relax. I am suggesting though that you do some accounting of how you’re spending your time and how said expenditure matches your goals.
Don’t let days of repetitive behavior that contradict your goals turn into months and then years. Time has the habit of getting the better of us more often than not. I assure you while you’re focusing on how great it would be to be at your goal weight, there’s another individual simply plugging away at the fundamentals day in and out and making slow, but steady progress.
Stay level-headed.
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