motivational quote: week four

"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals."

- Henry Ford

Henry Ford, an incredibly successful businessman who knows what he's talking about, brings me my motivation for Week Four.  His words remind me that in order to get past the obstacles in my way:
my own laziness,
my desire to eat lots of tasty (fattening and unhealthy) food,
my inability to leave a plate unfinished (thank you, Mom and Dad),
and many many other things,
I have to stay focused on my goals and rush right past them. I shouldn't even give them a cursory glance. Just keep my eyes on the prize, so to speak, and keep going in the right direction. When I take my eyes off my goal, when I relax and have a glance around, a stretch of the muscles, my obstacles will come into focus between myself and my goals and they might become too big to handle.

I liken this quote of Ford's to the idea of looking through a telescope at something in the far-off distance. When you're looking through the telescope, you can see the object you're looking at right up close, and nothing else. But when you take the telescope from your eye, you see the vast amount of space between you and the object, things that were cut out from your view when you had your eye pressed to the telescope.

I can't take my eye away from the telescope. I have to stay focused on my goal enough so that I can't see the obstacles or be distracted by them. I know they are there, I know the journey is long, but I have to remember how worth it the hard work will be. I have to remember what I'm getting at the end of it, in order to keep pursuing what I want.

I'm determined to do that! I've been doing great for nearly a month now, and I'm not slowing down or stopping anytime soon!