I want to be an ant

The other day I was sitting outside and looked down and saw that the ground nearby was being scavenged by ants.  They caught my attention.  I watched as some just seemed to walk aimlessly around and then I saw one.  It was carrying a piece of debris that was at least 5 times it's body size.  It held on and moved across the ground.  I watched, fascinated by this little ant carrying something so large.  The ant was relentless. It came to a piece of straw and it diligently crawled over the obstacle all the time carting his treasure on his back.  It came to obstacles and crawled under them.  They had to finagle sometimes to get their large treasure under these items.  A few times this ant seemed to give up when they were seemingly stuck or held up and unable to move further.  They let go of the piece of debris and moved away. I held my breath, saddened that this ant had worked so hard but was giving up.  I wanted to pick up the item and move it for them.  Instead I sat and watched.  But each time they circled the item and immediately picked it back up.  And each time they were able to get moving again. It was almost as if they had to stop, regroup, reconnoiter the situation and then re-attack the problem.  And EACH TIME they succeeded.

What a wonderful lesson that ant taught me.   Persistence.  What absolute persistence.  They were moving something that was HUGE (in relation to their size) over obstacles and under obstacles.  They did it.   Times got hard and they never gave up, they re-evaluated and continued on.

Have I been an 'ant' in my weight loss efforts?   When I was losing weight readily the first time, yes I was.  I had my bobbles and I sat back and looked at them and then dug right back in.  I was highly successful.  This time around I have adopted a very un-antlike attitude.  I have resisted even picking up the piece of debris because it's 'too big' for me to handle.  When I do pick it up, I carry it for a few paces until I hit my first obstacle and when I get stuck, instead of setting it down and looking at what is causing me to falter I just drop it and walk the other way.

I want to adopt the principles that I saw that ant display.  I want to not be afraid to do something that seems so insurmountable.  I want to not give up when I hit a speed bump.  I want to persevere.  I want to succeed.

I want to be an ant.