If New Years has taught me anything, it's that it's really, really easy to declare a new goal. It's absurdly simple for me to feel that electric shock of motivation and make a vow for change.

Where I have failed in the past, though, is when I think it only takes that one decision. It doesn't. You have to make that choice every time you're staring into the face of something that will distract you from your goal.

This week I had to say "No" to something that was distracting me from my current goal. Up to this point, my decisions for forward progress had only affected me. It's significantly more difficult to make those choices when it means I'd be letting someone else down - especially a friend.

In the end, though, I can't be all things to all people. I have to do whatever it takes to cross that finish line, because no one else will do it for me. It might not be perfectly relevant, but I've always loved this quote from Kate Dailey:

And, most importantly: the choice to be better than we were the day before is one we have to make all the time. And when we don't choose to be better, we only get worse.

It might have been hard to cut out this particular distraction, but difficult progress is still progress.