Success

OK, true confession time: sometimes, I watch "The Biggest Loser" on NBC. You see, my laundry days are Tuesday and Friday, and I like to watch TV while sorting and folding. And there's nothing good on TV, so I end up flipping until I find something tolerable, which, on Tuesdays, sometimes turns out to be TBL (and since we're in true confession mode, my Friday laundry often doesn't get folded until Monday night, when "House" is on).

So if you've watched "The Biggest Loser", you know Jillian Michaels, aka the toughest trainer on TV. During the past several weeks, advertisements have been airing for her new show, "Losing It With Jillian." I must admit, as a person who feels like she is "losing it" on a regular basis, I have been intrigued by the title, and by the concept: Jillian moves in with a family for one week, and during that time, teaches them to "lose it," whatever "it" may be. It's not just about losing weight, but more about letting go of all of the barriers and obstacles in our lives that hold us back from living life to the fullest. Last night was the premiere, and yes, I watched it, because I had 5 loads of laundry to fold and "Glee" wasn't long enough for me to finish (wow, all kinds of TV confessions today).

What really struck me about last night's show was a comment Jillian made to the daughter, who was the only one in the family who wasn't overweight--she had had gastric bypass surgery, lost a bunch, but still felt like that fat girl she had been. Jillian said to her, "why would you choose failure when success is an option?"

My first thought was that we don't choose failure, it chooses us. No one in their right mind would choose failure when success is an option, right? Failure is what happens when we simply cannot. But then I realized that so many times in my life, I haven't really believed that success is an option for me. So many times I have limited myself, believing that I couldn't do something, or that I wasn't worthy of success or happiness or whatever. So many times I have given up, thinking that just because something was difficult, that meant it was impossible for me. I think Jillian's point is that success is always an option. And it is a choice. And how can we choose anything less for ourselves?