The Danger of Being Tepid

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Today’s column is for the haphazard, lukewarm, tepid, non-committal, waffly, aimless, depthless, disorganised casual folk.

Many years ago, in 1992 I had my first amateur boxing fight at the young age of 13. My last at 26.

Boxing is a great metaphor for life, for living a fulfilled life, for setting goals, and for achieving them.

In sparring and in competing the one thing I was always advised to avoid was being half-hearted. Being casual, non-committal, tepid, gets you hurt, trust me I know.

So, when tackling the important things in your life, in 2023 and onwards, commitment is essential to success.

All the good things in our lives have an element of risk, and subsequently we are all independent humans, we all make choices and decisions, we can and we will.

Become aware of such depthless non-committal words such as try or should, could, ought to, got to, need to or must.

These words are ‘should’ cognitive distortions, a sign of illogical thinking, and being passive and ineffective.

If you become aware of your own language and catch yourself saying “I’ll try and get to the gym” or “I should start eating more veggies”, be certain there is a significantly high chance you will not!

As the wise philosopher Yoda, from the Star Wars movies was famous for stating, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

The overarching moral of this month’s column is to avoid hesitancy and apathy.It’s time to set goals and commit to 2023, and life, like boxing –tackle it with energy and belief.