No Magic Bullet

I have made a discovery.  Earth-shattering.  World-changing.  The kind of discovery that changes everything.  My discovery is simply this: There is no magic bullet.  No magic bullet to lose weight.  No magic bullet to get out of debt.  No magic bullet to keep the house clean, the yard looking good, your relationship strong.  Anything worth getting in this life is going to require sacrifice and hard work.

I've been overweight most of my life.  I've always wanted the magic bullet to get thin.  It never worked.  In October 2011, I accepted there was no magic bullet.  I started counting my calories, I cut out unhealthy food, and I tried to exercise more.  I lost 20 pounds.  I've kept it off.  I've made a goal to lose another 20 pounds this year.  I know, though, that I'll have to work harder, and work even harder to get down to my next goal.

For most of my bachelor years, I thought there had to be a magic bullet for finances.  I put purchase after purchase on my credit cards, and just hoped that someday they would be payed in full.  I never knew how that would happen, but I couldn't seem to keep my money under control.  After I got married, my wife and I spent almost a year living in the same way.  In an effort to get our debt under control, we took out a debt consolidation loan from my brother, with a promise that we would pay it back within a year.  I payed token amounts for the first 9 months, once again just hoping that somehow, those token payments would somehow add up to the whole debt.  Finally, it became clear that drastic action was going to be required to meet that obligation.

I budgeted out every cent, and pulled every string, and even sold my car.  We used every spare dime, and paid off the debt on time.  The problem was, we had put pretty much the same amount of money on our credit cards, so we were no better off.  Now, we are working on getting out of debt the right way.  There is no magic bullet.  We've made a plan, we're paying off a little debt every month, paying extra on our highest interest debt to retire it first.  It's going to take a full five years, but we're going to get it done.

I want our house to look good, top to bottom.  I want to paint, I want to re-carpet, I want to redecorate every room.  But I want that all to happen without having to work on it.  I want the lawn to be green and perfectly groomed.  I want the garden to be perfect, the flower beds weeded and freshly turned.  But I don't want to be out there for an hour or two every day, putting in the work.

More and more, though, the lesson is sinking in.  There is no magic bullet.  I have to put in the work to get the results.  If there is a product that promises radical weight loss with no extra effort, don't expect it to work.  If there is a new system that promises over-night wealth, free money, or a fast and easy way to get rid of debt, look for the "results not typical" disclaimer, because I guarantee it will be there.  The only things worth having in this life are going to be difficult, are going to take hard work and dedication.  If they didn't, would they really be worth having?