I get asked all the time, “How do you have the patience to create drawings like that?” Each strand of fur, whisker by whisker, with painstaking detail. How do I stay so focused, so determined? The answer is easy for me. I see the end result clearly in my mind and I know what I must do to get there.

Over the past few years however, those questions have been directed towards another aspect of my life…fitness. My journey to health and fitness began January of 2011. I didn’t make any announcements. I didn’t check in with anyone to see what they thought. Their opinions didn’t matter anyway. It’s my life, my health, my body. For the first three months, I changed only my eating habits to see how effective that would be all on its own. I dropped 12 pounds. People started to notice. Then I added exercise. Not just any exercise with a hit or miss schedule. I chose P90X. Yea, I can never just do things the easy way. I didn’t worry about how tough it was. I just did my best each and every day. Over the course of the year, the weight consistently dropped off. By the time the weight loss slowed down to what I should be, I had dropped a total of 65 pounds. And most importantly, I kept it off.

“Where does the patience come from? How do you stay so focused? How do you have the willpower and the discipline??” Again, it’s easy. I saw the end result in my mind and I never looked back. Actually, there’s a little bit more to it than just that.

• I acknowledge that I’m human and so I allow for mistakes.
• I went into it knowing this was to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary thing.
• I leave nothing to chance. I plan my meals for every occasion, both at home and when I’m on the road.
• I am patient as well as realistic. It took years for me to get so out of shape. I certainly didn’t expect overnight results.
• I never expected perfection, only progress.
• And to this day, there is no finish line because there is always better.
• Oh yea…and I never skip a cheat meal! They’re good for morale and they’re a great way to jump start those fat burning hormones again (which tend to slow down on very clean diets). Yes, there is a science to the cheat meal. So do yourself a favor and enjoy it!
• And above all else, I wanted it badly enough that nothing was going to stand in my way.

This all goes for just about anything you want to achieve. You must step outside of your comfort zone and you must never give up. Understandably, fear and doubt are notorious for sabotaging our dreams. I know this first hand. But be kind to yourself. Be patient. And remember, nothing worth having ever comes easily.