Sadly those facial creams and cleansers, hair products, bonsai gardens and even training programs weren't the most sound products around- frankly, a lot of them were just lemons.
But I can say that this line does hold true in one area of our lives. It holds true when it comes to changing our lives towards the will of God.
We all have those moments where God makes us realise that we need to change a certain part of our life or that the path we're going down might not be the best option.
When we have those moments, it's all too common that we then go full-tilt into fixing the situation. If it's that we need to get fit, we buy tons of fitness equipment or sign up to a gym and then start going daily to ensure we feel that we are making an impact. If it's that we need be more generous to others, we make sure the next month becomes filled up with catch-ups with people and any spare time left is used on the phone to those we can't physically meet.
The problem with this thought process is that we expect results automatically and when they don't happen, we get frustrated and go back to our old ways. The gym membership becomes something that is bought but never used as we didn't lose that 5kg we were hoping to get rid of in the first week. The exhaustion of not having any time to ourselves makes us resent our friends who are forcing us to catch up with them and so we stop catching up with anyone all together, saying it's time for some me time!
If you're in this situation, before I continue, please don't feel bad about it. You are not alone as we've all been there at one stage of our lives or are still there and I say that from personal experience.
The truth of it all is, you are never going to change something in the space of a few hours, days or weeks. In some cases, you aren't even going to change something in a matter of months. The thing is though, if you keep trying to change, sooner or later, the want becomes a habit and that habit will, overtime, see you make the change you are trying to achieve.
Recently I've come to the realisation that my need for things to be perfect is not good for me, for others or for my life. I never saw myself as a perfectionist, but a few years ago, I realised that while I don't fuss over everything, I do set a very high standard on what I do and that sometimes is either unrealistic or puts way to much pressure on myself and others.
So, I have set about this year working to try to accept that when I make mistakes, that's not a bad thing, but rather a fact of life that comes from being imperfect.
I started by trying to just completely change my thought process. I was going about just accepting the errors I and others made and not really caring much about them, at times I think those around me thought I was just not caring at all I was that laid back about things.
There's an old saying though that says a leopard never changes its spots and in this case, I was the leopard.
As much as I tried to change the thought process, it didn't take long for me to start getting annoyed at how people thought I wasn't caring and from that, I went back to trying not to make mistakes. It got to a point a month ago where I was so worried about doing something wrong, it was affecting my prayer life and my relationship with God, which in hindsight, was ridiculous.
Good news though is that God by his grace let me in the last few weeks hear from some great people who gave me a lot of wisdom and understanding in this area and from that, I realised once more that I wasn't meant to be perfect, that I would stuff up and that it was ok for that to happen.
But that then led me to ask... well then, if I'm not meant to perfect but I feel like I need to be, how can I change where I'm at without going back into the craziness of the last few months?
The answer in the end as I'm finding out, was that I do need to change, but not as drastically as I thought I did. Change in our lives is not like changing clothes. You don't just whip off one thing and throw on another and wham, the job is done.
Change in our lives is a gradual process. It involves us taking small steps every day to make a difference to where we are at. For me with my need to be perfect, it's making the choice everyday to accept I won't be perfect- and then accept that if I stuff up in doing this, it's ok as I wasn't meant to do it perfectly.
I know that there's some days I'll succeed with flying colours and there's other days I'm going to fall into old habits. The key though is that on the bad days, I need to realise that it's a bad day and then get back on the path the next day and to know that on the good days, it's one step closer to my goal.
I was listening to renowned chastity speaker Leah Darrow last night who said that "it's ok to fall seven times, as long as you get up eight".
The honest truth is that we aren't expected to make it to our final goal in one step. We are going to fall a few times before we get there, just as we did when we were learning to walk. But just as with that process, over time, if we keep on the path and trying, we'll get there eventually if we are meant to be there.
As I said at the very start- it may not happen overnight, but it will happen.
Till next time...
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