Gonna Be

"Every time I see you it reminds me that I should start working out."

She meant this as a compliment but I couldn't help thinking how her and many others think this way and yet do absolutely nothing about it. It's the vocabulary of the wanna-be's. "I should...." "I might...." "Maybe I'll..." "Possibly I'll..." The list of "weak" commitment phrases could span pages. The problem is that they leave the escape hatch propped open just enough to insert "...but..." followed by an equally long list of excuses why you won't.

At one time The Rooster called me out as an Ironman wanna-be. Without even thinking about it I replied "Not wanna-be, gonna-be." The vocabulary of the gonna-be's is a lot simpler and more direct than that of the wanna-be's. "I will.". Done. Period. No room for "...but...". No room for excuses.

Sure, sometimes you won't and sometimes you can't. Injury, work, family, life. Things get in the way. For a gonna-be it's only a postponement. The difference is that the "I will" part doesn't go away. It's still there, you just need to find a different route to get there. And as long as you continue to think "I will", you will.

The next time you catch yourself saying "I should..." stop and think about it. If it's truly worth doing then think "I will..." instead. And then go do it. If it's not worth an "I will..." then it isn't worth considering any further.