Live Your Destiny Today!

Sarai...she survived all the double cheeseburgers.

When I was pregnant with my daughter Sarai, who was born in 1990, I’d frequently go to McDonalds (more often than I’d like to admit) and order my favorite: 2 Double Cheesburgers. Back then, McDonald’s used to often run a special: 2 Double Cheeseburgers for $1 (I’m dating myself).

Back then, I loved their double cheeseburgers. After a meal at McDonalds, I was ready to take my pregnant belly somewhere and lie down.

It’s no wonder that McDonalds is Sarai’s favorite eatery.

Anyway, you couldn’t pay me enough money now to eat at McDonalds, least of all the double cheeseburgers.

But back then, if someone had asked me to give up eating double cheeseburgers, it wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t even entertain the thought that I would one day give up cheeseburgers, and do so happily.

There’s a divide between elimination and deprivation, and that divide is defined in one word:

Readiness.

There still may be things (foods, activities, etc.) that you may engage in that you know aren’t good for you, but you’re still not ready to give them up. It’s okay. You don’t have to.

Yet there comes a day when you will ask yourself why you are doing something to yourself that is unloving or unkind.

You’ll start to wonder why you’re treating your body the way you are.

And you’ll decide to make a change.

That’s what happened to me. I loved cheeseburgers until I finally became 150% convinced that a cheeseburger from McDonalds was the worst possible food for my arteries, heart and general health, especially in the quantity that I consumed on a weekly basis. (No wonder I was overweight.)

When I was just 30% convinced, I didn’t give up cheeseburgers, though the thought crossed my mind. I kept right on pulling up to the drive thru with my $1.05 in hand.

When I was 75% convinced, I really played with the idea of giving up cheeseburgers, but it still didn’t keep me from the drive thru. I just didn’t go quite as often.

When I became 100% convinced that the cheeseburgers were having a negative effect on me and my health, I made a choice. I decided I’d give up cheeseburgers.

When I became 150% convinced, cheeseburgers actually became repulsive to me.

As of this writing, I haven’t had a McDonald’s cheeseburger in years and wouldn’t even consider it. It makes me frown to even think of all the cheeseburgers I ate.

What I’m describing here is the difference between elimination, which is healthy and necessary, and deprivation, which is unhealthy and leads to excess.

Though elimination and deprivation have the same end effect: something is removed or given up, the process and lasting results are very different.

Elimination is absolutely necessary in every area of life, from cleaning the house to cleaning out the fridge, to cleaning your office, to cleaning out old papers, to cleaning out your mind.

Deprivation never works, and only leads to you returning to what you gave up with a renewed ravenous appetite for whatever you feel deprived of.

For example, let’s say you love chocolate cake (okay, this example is about me), and you’re not yet convinced of the untoward effects of indulging in the treat as often as you do. So you go on eating as much as you like, whenever you want.

Then, you decide to go on a diet. The diet says you cannot eat chocolate cake for the next 30 days. You agree to give up chocolate cake for the period of the diet. One week goes by, and you haven’t had any chocolate cake. Under normal conditions, you would have had 5 slices in that span of time. You go a second week and you’ve missed 10 slices of chocolate cake. By now, you’re feigning for a taste. You start seeing chocolate cakes dancing by in your dreams. Everything starts looking like chocolate cake. You feel more deprived. Week three barely starts and you break the diet, running to the store to pick up the most delectable chocolate cake you can get your paws on. Then you eat half the cake that day, along with half a gallon of Breyers french vanilla ice cream (okay, I’m talking about myself, but the example is still valid…).

That’s what deprivation looks like. Not pretty.

Then there’s elimination, which is a conscious choice.

When we come to love ourselves to a deeper degree, when we want only what’s best for ourselves and when we know we deserve only the best, our behaviors change.

Our thoughts change.

And our results change. Often dramatically.

Elimination says: “I no longer choose to engage in activities that aren’t good for me. I’m choosing to eliminate this, and I’m happier without it.”

And there is no angst about it. You don’t feel like you’re missing something. In fact, you feel proud of your new conscious choice. You reward and celebrate yourself for a healthier new lifestyle that’s in harmony with your highest good.

Elimination is conscious, healthy and necessary. Elimination serves as the pruning shears of life. A beautiful bonsai is carefully pruned by its caretaker, causing it to be shaped into a tree of exquisite beauty.

Take the pruning shears to your life today and eliminate only what you are ready to let go.

Remember, the difference between elimination and deprivation is summed up in one word: readiness.

When you’re ready, you can permanently eliminate anything that isn’t for your highest good.

Until next time,

VAL