Case in point: You KNOW you need to quit smoking, so what do you do? You take out that new pack of Vice Roys and hurl em into the trash. However, as soon as that urge hits you, you know the one. That overpowering desire to ......SMOKE. A craving so enormous, that it encourages you to bolt into the kitchen, dig into that garbage can and retrieve that pack of cancer causing sticks that you threw away only a few hours ago... when you promised yourself you'd QUIT.

Even though you've tried to rid yourself of your nasty habit before you got that monkey on your back, that CRAVING, you know only too well. That animal who'd come 'round the mountain every few hours or so. Know him do ya?

You were more than aware that you'd have to find willpower from a place deep inside your gut (a place you never knew existed) that would allow you to free yourself from the shackles of that puff that you yearn for each day. Am I right??

Here's one a lot of us can, or should be able to relate to at one time or another in our lives. What about promising yourself that you'd quit cursing? You've tried the jar routine and that didn't work. And don't even act like it's just me who knows about the jar routine....you fill a jar with money for each curse word that you use. After weeks of depositing your entire paycheck into that stupid jar, out of frustration, you take the money stuffed inside and go and buy a carton of cigarettes!!

The point is this: We don't need a date to indicate that we should make positive changes that affect our livelihood. Our initiative should begin within our own minds. We know what we need to do but we drag our heels about doing it don't we?

I'm a great observer of people and one of the observations that I can't deny is we always find time to do what we want to do but rarely find the time to do what we need to do.

We've all heard how anything worthwhile takes effort to attain it, but are we willing to put in the work to make that "positive change" happen?

People deposit crrrazy amounts of money into purchasing vehicles, throw money away on clothes, hair, nails, feet, teeth, contacts, sex, men, women, animals (I'm guilty of the contact one, in hazel might I add), and a host of other things we believe we can't live without, but talk about a person going to the gym is like asking most to agree to be hung by their toenails. I just don't get it!

Most of you who read my blog know I can babble for days about a topic that I feel strongly about. However, this time, I just want to give you a little food for thought:

You know what you need to do; you already know or have a good idea of how to do it. The mindset you need to have in order to make it happen has been there all along. So what're you waiting for? Next year? Next week? How about the next hour? Procrastination is the thief of time. Always has been and I suspect it always will be. Since time is the most valuable commodity today, and also one we can never get back, what're you gonna do about YOUR time?

Don't make promises to yourself you know full well you will have a problem keeping or better yet, you won't even try to keep the oath you made to yourself at all!!

Check this out: We all have power over our own way of thinking to ......CHANGE. You already realize that you must go through some type of sacrifice to make that change your reality. So how 'bout this? Stop thinking about it, and simply BE ABOUT IT!...After all, If you make no attempt at changing at all for a better or healthier YOU, New Years will be back this time next year on the same bat channel. And you'll still be exactly where you are right now. THINKING about it!

Only YOU know the repercussions, if any, of "remaining where/how you are right now" in your life. And THAT dear reader, I CAN promise you!!

(c) 2007 By C. V. Harris. All Rights Reserved.

C. V. Harris' Memoir entitled Stubborn Stains has been published and is available through Authorhouse.com. She is currently working on her sophomore novel entitled Ricochet. Send an e-mail to her at info@onewriterwriting@hotmail.com or visit her Blog at onewriterwriting.blogspot.com for more interesting articles.