My wife, Julia, has wanted to get back into a size two ever since she started gaining weight a few years back.

And like a lot of people who want to lose weight, she talked about it a lot.

“I want to be skinny!”

“I want to look like I did when I met you!”

“I want to be able to wear my sexy dresses!”

I want, I want, I want. . .

But if having a trim, athletic body was as easy as wanting it, then everybody in America would be walking around with eight-pack abs. Instead, most of us are walking around overweight and talking about how we want to lose some of it.

See, when you just want something, you’re not willing to sacrifice for it. If you just want something, you’re likely to make a lot of excuses as to why you don’t have it. When you just want it, you’re not willing to get outside of your comfort zone to achieve it.

A few months ago, when Julia “just wanted it,” the only exercise she was willing to do was low-intensity yoga twice a week.

When she “just wanted it,” she claimed that she was not a runner, not a hiker, and not an athlete, so she just couldn’t do it.

When she “just wanted it,” there was no way in hell I could get her to try anything new that might help her get there.

But that’s all in the past.

A strong, burning desire has overtaken her basic want, and she’s thrown out the excuses, embraced the sacrifice, and gotten so far outside beyond her comfort zone that it’s a long-distance to call her.

I mentioned the other day how she told me last October that I was crazy for running hill sprints in the Belk Tonawanda park and that, further, it was “something she could never do.” Yet, two weeks ago, she was out there with me and stayed until the end despite a massive downpour that left us both looking like we had taken a swim.

Yesterday, after a hard 30-minute workout, she jumped a pretend rope 500 times until her legs were quivering.

Today was sprint day again, this time 100 yards on flat ground, and she pushed herself so hard that she peed in her pants a little in the 4th round.

And then kept going for seven more rounds.

No freaking way 2019 Julia would have done that. Hell, 2019 Julia wouldn’t even have started. 2019 Julia would have said she can’t, or that she felt stupid, or that it was too hard, or that. . .

But just wanting something is sooooo 2019, and 2020 Badass Julia ain’t having nothing to do with it.

Because when all you have is a want for something, well, you don’t really have anything except something to talk about. It’s when you have a burning desire for it that you find a way to get it even when you think you can’t, or you feel stupid, or it seems too hard.

Or even when you’ve peed in your pants just a little.