ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE WON’TPOWER

You know, this whole fitness and wellness movement has gotten out of hand. Exercise will increase your life span! Eating healthy will keep degenerative diseases at bay! Getting enough rest will strengthen your neural pathways (or whatever)! If the feeling strikes to exercise or eat healthy or go to bed at a reasonable hour, I usually just bang my head against the nearest wall until it passes. Willpower shmillpower. I’ve got something better. I’ve got won’tpower.

Considering that my blog is entitled fashionista2passionista.com, it stands to reason that I used to be somewhat focused on the exterior and am now more focused on the interior. You could say I’m a little more well-rounded. In fact, I’m about 15 pounds more well-rounded, due to my incredible won’tpower. While others are clamouring to the gym or piling Lean Cuisines into their shopping carts, yours truly is happily parked on the couch with a Combo Meal (aka heart attack in a bag). What’s so great about won’tpower? Well, it’s universal, and it’s easy. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. And in this busy world, aren’t we searching for simple?

If you’re looking to fail miserably at something, it’s easy. Just exercise your won’tpower. That way, when people ask if you exercise, you can truthfully say yes (you don’t have to say you’re exercising your right to suck). Look at these examples:

Will I go to the gym? No, I won’t.

Will I make an effort to buy and prepare healthy food? No, I won’t.

Will I take reasonable breaks and regular down time to rejuvenate? No, I won’t.

Will I make the effort to discover what brings me deep-down-in-my-bones joy? No, I won’t.

Will I take a good, hard look at myself, and determine where I need to improve? No, I won’t.

Will I determine where I can give back to my community? No, I won’t.

See how simple it is? That hardly took any effort at all. No risk of progress. No risk of success. We all know how pesky that can be: personal satisfaction, public admiration, professional advancement. Imagine the effort involved with that kind of forward movement? I shudder to think! No, I will leave that kind of thinking to the outliers, and I’ll just settle comfortably into my cocoon of won’tpower, and I won’t budge.

Let’s talk about affirmations. Affirmations are like prayer, although it could be said they are offered to the universe as opposed to a particular religious figure. The idea here is that the Law of Attraction is at work, and will scramble to make your dreams come true. (I picture Oompah-Loompahs pulling all kind of levers and pushing all kinds of buttons on a big 60’s-style computer sporting a label that says “Sharron”.) The theory is that if you focus very intently on something you want, be it a thing, person (well, that’s stalking), or experience in a positive manner and for the right reasons (see previous note about stalking), it will inevitably come to pass. My personal belief is that if you focus intently and positively on whatever for the right reasons, then you are directing all your energy, and that of those around you, towards that thing, and that resulting effort will make it a reality. Fortunately, the same applies to won’tpower.

If I maintain laser focus on what I don’t want, then it will inevitably not come to pass. That’s too many negatives but you get the idea. The universe doesn’t make judgement calls, it just listens to what you’re saying. So if you consistently tell it that you don’t want to succeed, don’t want to thrive, don’t want to advance, well then, colour me orange and call me Snooki, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Given that I find my lifestyle up until now has focused on the exterior and not the interior, I realize that there is a lot of work to be done on the inside. So recently I’ve begun to ask myself some new questions, with positive results:

Will I go quietly into old age without taking care of myself? No, I won’t.

Will I accept that I am getting older and therefore cannot progress? No, I won’t.

Will I turn a blind eye to the aging process and hope it won’t happen to me? No, I won’t.

Will I give up on my dreams because I’m not skilled, too old, or they’re perceived to be silly? No, I won’t.

Whaddya know? My won’tpower seems to be coming in handy after all.

Sharron Richardson is a passionista, writer and speaker and can be contacted at: forsharron@rogers.com her blog is located at: www.fashionista2passionista.com