It’s been 25 years since my weight loss surgery, and I am quite proud that I still wear a size 10 jeans. However, yesterday when I put on a pair of my pants fresh from the dryer, I found myself holding my breath, sucking in, doing a few kicks, dancing around and zipping them up with all the strength I could muster. (You are smiling aren’t you. You know what I am talking about)!
Hmm. My first thought was, well shrunk in the dryer… my next natural go to explanation was… must be water weight week, and of course, darn this corona virus weight gain! But then, like a flash came a hurtful dose of reality as I recalled this thought from a billboard:
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions!”
Yep, it was in that moment that I finally told myself the truth. My habits are all out of whack! I knew exactly what I had been doing and I owned it! All of it! Taking personal responsibility, a very difficult, but essential step to change.
When I first read this billboard, I thought about some of today’s generation of kids who seem to lack any sense of personal responsibility. Everything is someone else’s fault. They fail to see the connection between their own choices and the inevitable consequences of those choices. Forever placing the blame for their own circumstances on anyone and anything but themselves. “It’s his fault, it’s her fault, I had to because they…” Some adults are like that too. “It’s my boss, the weather, the government, the neighbors, how I was raised.” On and on it goes, placing blame on anyone and anything to avoid owning and taking responsibility for their current circumstances.
Then, there are the ones who, in my mind, really ‘get it.’ I have always admired those people who, though they make mistakes, are very quick to own up to their responsibility. To step up and say, “Yes, I did that; I knew better, but I did it and now I own the consequences.”
My book, the # 1 Bariatric Best Seller, The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients, highlights our research into the habits of the most successful long term weight loss surgery patients. When comparing those most successful, with those who have struggled through the years, the desire and the ability to take responsibility for daily habits varied greatly. Those most successful are personally accountable every day, in every way. Readily owning their choices and consequences; both good and bad. They make quick adjustments as needed, not only to maintain a healthy weight long term, but also in other areas of their lives.
I think of myself as a pretty responsible person, but surely want to do better, more often. Today, I am renewing will my commitment to be more accountable for my choices, and to own my actions and their outcomes.
Now, about those tight pants… I’m on it!