Temptations are everywhere – donuts stuffed with delicious cream, a flirty escape with someone beautiful, an hour or two of web surfing at work, a new car in lieu of paying off a credit card, a dive into unknown waters – oh the enormity of such a list!

We know we shouldn’t indulge, but we want to so badly. We think, just once. What could it hurt? I’ll go right back to being strict with myself tomorrow.

We face our lures through hooded eyes, beckoning them closer to us. We toss around the what-ifs as we stand tall and justify to ourselves why we feel just this once we deserve to indulge. The arguments roll off our complex sensory epicenters and dance provocatively for us, conjuring up all sorts of flutters, tummy rolls, flips and tumbles, circling us around like tumbleweeds in the wind. Our hearts race, our nerves fire, our neurons explode priming us for what’s about to come.

Yeah, the good stuff.  Right? Or so we think.

In comes our annoying rebuttal, that finger-waving practical side demanding us to snap out of our euphoric fantasies of sugary sweetness and head-spinning romps and stand firm in our resolve to face our promises with steel eyes, logical thoughts, and unshakable restraint. The duel between right and wrong progresses fast as we straddle a fine line with a vulnerability that parallels little. Just a nudge in either direction could change our course for good.

We’ve all been there.

One flip of the switch in one direction could mean the difference between light and darkness. What am I talking about here? Am I talking about sneaking a couple of cookies while dieting, cheating on an exam, or much worse? It’s different for us all.

Temptation is universal. It can set us back for a short-term or can wreak havoc on the rest of our lives.

Thankfully, we get to choose our actions!

How do you deal with temptation?