Zig Ziglar once said “Every choice you make has an end result.” Couldn’t agree more with this statement. If you stuff your face, it won’t take long for the repercussion to be seen or felt. In as much as the extra layers of fat will keep you warm, the waistline will make it that much harder for you to fit into your best outfit and in no time you will be well acquainted with the medical industry. The industry players will most definitely embrace you with wide open arms owing to the fact that you will play a key role in lining their pockets. In certain parts of the world, one who carries extra pounds is deemed as healthy and wealthy. An added advantage besides keeping warm without the need for additional clothing.
The book Atomic Habits by James Clear captures the gist of cause and effect quite well. In the book, Clear states that your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits and your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. However long it takes, the end result of a negative choice will certainly rear its ugly head at one point or the other. I learnt this the hard way. A childhood decision to sidestep swimming lessons nearly turned tragic years later while on vacation.
As they often say, hindsight vision is 20:20. Looking back, I can identify the specific moment in time when things took a turn for the worse with regards to my swimming interest or lack thereof. A series of unfortunate events played a role in the overall scheme of things whereby an act of omission triggered a chain reaction. Whereas I detest the idea of passing the buck, I feel as though the swimming teacher deserves an iota of blame.
At the onset of the training lessons, all seemed to be going well. Kicking legs while holding on to the rail seemed easy enough. There was hardly any breathing space since we were all packed together in the shallow end of the pool. All thirty of us nine year olds clung to one another as the instructor bellowed instructions from the other end of the pool. I don’t remember making it past this stage. Floating proved to be a tough sell. The straw that broke the camel’s back is when I got yelled at one day when I forgot to carry my swimming costume. Our instructor was a stickler for rules and this did not sit well with me. A gentler approach would have sufficed. Ever since that day, I actively engaged in a game of hide and seek on swimming days to the detriment of progress on the swimming front.
One day several moons later, my siblings and I decided to go to Atlantic City NJ. This time around I did not forget my swimming costume though I knew it served little to no purpose besides helping me fit into the crowd. Didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb for lack of a better term. Whoever coined the phrase the devil is a liar was definitely onto something. No sooner had we arrived at the beach than temptation got the better of me and I could not resist the urge to explore. There was something alluring about the water and it can partly be attributed to the fact that it was an extremely hot day. I could have sworn I saw someone sweating whilst in the water. An unmentionable word was just about to hit the fan. I stepped into the water and convinced myself that I will stay close to the edge. Little did I know that the ocean was much different from the shallow end of the pool where I last stood prior to engaging in a game of hide and seek with water.
When I entered the ocean, it was crowded. However, as time went by I got carried away both literally and figuratively. I was having a ball and the tide pushed me away from the beach; further into the water. I knew I was in trouble when I realized there was no one besides me. The closest person was more than thirty feet away and I no longer felt the ground beneath my feet. The rail was not there to hold onto at the hour of need. Panic creeped in. My mother was tens of thousands miles away but I called out to her as if she was there with me when I made the decision to shirk swimming lessons. Choices have consequences. I can joke about it now but in the heat of the moment there was absolutely nothing funny about it. Consequences do exist and they know where you sleep at night.
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