Monday, January 26, 2009

Avoid Your Vomit

Sorry about the title. But it will (if you haven't figured it out already) make sense.

As I've stated in the past, you never know where a blogable idea will come from.
In that case it was Proverbs 12:6 and X Men 3 (you can read that here).
Today it's Proverbs 26:11—no movie.

Proverbs 26:11 Like a dog that returns to it's vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Now I've read that verse before and never thought much about it. However, this time I read it and thought "Ohhhh! Wait a minute. That's talking about me".

Before I give my line of thinking, here is an oft used quote attributed to at least three different people (mostly Albert Einstein) and a Chinese proverb.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

So, I read the verse and thought of the quote and kind of put the two together and started thinking of "different results" that I would like to see in my life. How I've done the same thing over and over (returning to my vomit) and of course got the same results.

In my last post (New Years Eve) I talked about things that I want to do more or less of this year, and I now see this as kind of a continuation of that thought process. Stated simply, if I want to see different results, I will need to do more or less of certain things as they pertain to that result. A simple example would be: if I want a healthier diet, I need to eat less sugared cereal and more vegetables. A fool returns to his Sugar Puffs. (which by the way I have not had a bowl of sugared cereal this year)

Identifying The Vomit–

I started trying to think of things that people foolishly return to and as a result don't get different results—aka the vomit in their lives.

–Not following through or finishing what was started. (my biggie)
–Getting caught up in the day to day and not getting the big things done. (again me)
–Bad eating habits. (of course if your not after different results then don't worry
about it)
–Not exercising. (ditto)
–Going to bed later than I should to get up when my alarm goes off. (oops, did write
that in first person?)
–Wanting a better, more loving relationship with your wife (spouse) and keep
treating her the same way as always.
–Not do anything about the great ideas you have. (I'm looking to make big strides on
this one)

You get the idea. I'm sure there's a lot more that could be said in relationship to this and maybe I'll write on it more in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll come up with enough for a book. . .

I can see it now, a whole rack full right as you come in the doors of Barnes and Noble and on the cover of each of those books, in big bold print, Avoid Your Vomit - how to keep from regurgitating the messes in your life.