That’s how it starts
An extra bite here
A cheat drink there
A ‘doesn’t-count’ puff in between
A hit along the way
That’s how it starts
Hitting snooze for this one day
Skipping your workout the next
Sneaking a treat because no one sees
And hitting Netflix ‘repeat’
That’s how it starts
‘Just this one time,’
It’ll be okay
No one needs to know
Anyway
That’s how it starts
When you see it on the news
And you say with a shake of the head
And a little sigh
What a shame
But it will never happen here
No need to act now
That’s how it starts
When discipline takes a day
What empathy goes away
When apathy comes for a week
But takes over the place
That’s how it starts
“Just this once”
It’ll be okay
And before you know it
Things have spiralled
Out
of
Control.
…That’s how it starts.
—
I wrote this piece nearly a year ago in observation of the role that self-discipline and vigilance play in both our personal and societal successes and failures. Sometimes the slips and gaps we see in our society and ourselves – that which we deem ‘weakness’ or ‘failings’ – merely reflect slips and gaps we have been willing to tolerate all along. The flipside is that we also have the ability to declare what we will tolerate no more, both within ourselves and the world around us, and change it. We just have to take our slips and gaps, own them, and get. to. work.
Originally posted to Facebook/Twitter on 29 September 2016
Dr. Shawna Pandya 
That’s how it starts
An extra bite here
A cheat drink there
A ‘doesn’t-count’ puff in between
A hit along the way
That’s how it starts
Hitting snooze for this one day
Skipping your workout the next
Sneaking a treat because no one sees
And hitting Netflix ‘repeat’
That’s how it starts
‘Just this one time,’
It’ll be okay
No one needs to know
Anyway
That’s how it starts
When you see it on the news
And you say with a shake of the head
And a little sigh
What a shame
But it will never happen here
No need to act now
That’s how it starts
When discipline takes a day
What empathy goes away
When apathy comes for a week
But takes over the place
That’s how it starts
“Just this once”
It’ll be okay
And before you know it
Things have spiralled
Out
of
Control.
…That’s how it starts.
—
I wrote this piece nearly a year ago in observation of the role that self-discipline and vigilance play in both our personal and societal successes and failures. Sometimes the slips and gaps we see in our society and ourselves – that which we deem ‘weakness’ or ‘failings’ – merely reflect slips and gaps we have been willing to tolerate all along. The flipside is that we also have the ability to declare what we will tolerate no more, both within ourselves and the world around us, and change it. We just have to take our slips and gaps, own them, and get. to. work.
Originally posted to Facebook/Twitter on 29 September 2016
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