The Reward Without Paying the Price

In dieting - or, rather, maintaining my figure and remaining healthy - I want the reward immediately, without having to go on a diet.  Here is a quote:

"Eventually you can do what you want. At the beginning, we have
to do what we have to do. That's the price of admission."
~ Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE

I am carrying a few extra pounds that I would be well advised to shed, if for no other reason than the fact that my knees are beginning to hurt. But I have been trying to shed these 10 or 15 pounds for the past 10 or 15 years! C'mon, whom am I kidding? I write a nice blog on the benefits of not dieting, indeed, on the merits of staying slim without dieting, the concepts of which I subscribe to avidly, and yet, although I am healthy and good looking by several criteria, I am still carrying too much poundage on my bones.  Silly, isn't it, to work toward a certain goal and keep it forever at arm's length.  How difficult is it to shed 10 or 15 pounds? Obviously, difficult enough.  But, come to think of it, perhaps that is the very problem here: It is a small enough amount that perhaps I don't feel a tremendous compulsion to tackle the "problem"; perhaps I do not view it as a problem at all.  There seems to be no urgency.  And yet, my sense of values is at stake: Either dedicate yourself to the task, keep your word, accomplish the goal, or give up completely, not as abdication, but rather as a form of acceptance of the current state, the extra 10-15 extra pounds.  Accept or commit to change, commit to a goal, and just do it, the Nike motto.

Interesting that I want the same thing in my public speaking: to be an accomplished speaker, in demand by many, and yet I am putting forth little effort in that regard.