“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” (Margaret Thatcher)  Isn’t that the truth? How many times have I decided that I was going to conquer the mountain before me only to be beat down by the first peak?

This is my year for… 

I’m going to take that big leap into…

To be honest I think my internal GPS is on a permanent script of “recalculating”.

As I was sitting here today thinking about it all I realized that I have never accomplished any goal the way I thought I would.

Ever.

I have taken backroads, off ramps, and shortcuts that always seemed to lead me the long way around.

I have taken the successes and failures of others to heart and compared my own life to theirs.

Through it all I have learned a few things and they’ve stuck with me:

1. No battle worth fighting is easy and in my experience once it is won (whatever the battle may be- health and nutrition, weight loss, addiction…)
2. We have to continue the fight to keep it in the winners bracket.

The minute I let my guard down is the minute I begin to slip back into my old ways. Now I don’t mean that the battle is always difficult, but it is always before me. Things I have thought I conquered years ago suddenly rear their ugly heads and I find myself having to make a conscious effort to put them back in their place.  

I used to think that I was a failure because of those times. Now I realize that it’s just part of the process.

Do you want to win for good?

Then quit beating yourself up when you have to fight a battle over and over. It’s the battle that makes us strong, it gives us the ability to persevere, and ultimately be changed.

I love gold, but until you heat it up it contains all kinds of impurities. It’s the heat that allows those impurities to be removed and the beauty of the gold can then shine through.

You and I- we are like gold being refined. The fire that we hate, the battle that is long and tiresome- all of it is bringing us to a place where we can look back and see the beauty in it all.

The beauty in ourselves.

The kind of beauty that is so much deeper than what the mirror portrays.

We may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

True.

We may have to fight for months or years, but in the end I’ve never regretted the fight. I’ve always been glad I took on the challenge. Win or lose each and every battle has brought something out of me that I didn’t know existed. I’ve learned, I’ve grown, I’ve lost and I’ve won, and looking back I’m glad for all of it.

I’m not excited for the battle today (are we ever really?) but I am ready to fight. There is so much more to be accomplished than just a single goal and I am surrendering the battle before me to God. With him all things are possible and I know that I don’t have to fight alone. It’s a win win. I make progress and he changes me.  So, here I am welcoming so many battles I really don’t want to fight and I’m completely confident that it will be worth it.

How about joining me today?  Pick your battle, lace up your gloves and let’s fight together. Gold takes time to be perfectly refined and so do you and I and ya know what?  Both are beautifully worth it.