photo credit: quinn.anya~
Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” ~ Unfortunately, not everyone knows of your resolve to obtain your personal goals and real life often presents detours. For most, it’s work that interferes and establishes your priorities for the day. When other things get in the way, you may need to regroup and adjust course.
I was overly optimistic on Monday. Upon reflection, I set myself up for failure thinking I could do it all – that my shear intention would somehow overpower any obstacles that would come my way. By the end of a very long day, I had failed on 2 of my goals – grocery shopping and a circuit workout at the gym. Between work and assisting with an office move, I was dismayed to find the day gone before I had accomplished the 2 things that I had set out to accomplish for myself.
Unexpectedly, I also ran into a few detours that I allowed to tick my time away. I did manage to cleanse my fridge of all holiday leftovers, leaving me with few options for lunch, so I couldn’t resist an invite to lunch with my sister who was leaving to go home in the afternoon. Later, in doing my part of the office move, I got caught up in conversations with people I ran into along the way. Before I knew it, it was dark and the day was done.
Yesterday was a second chance to do better, but with lowered expectations. I restocked the fridge and taught my class, but to do so, I had to bypass writing a blog post. Throughout the day, I kept fighting a sense of defeat. This is what often happens to people in their quest to achieve a change in lifestyle. They set out with great ambition and try to do it all at once, but when presented with a detour, they feel as if they failed. They treat them as complete roadblocks and choose to turn around, give up, and return to old patterns.
To keep commitment over the long haul, you have to reassess what’s working, and when presented with something that’s not, try a different tact. At the very least, you can’t give in to that feeling of failure. Consider things you fall short on as simple detours and roll with it. Think instead of what you did accomplish. Just remember to keep checking the map to stay focused on where you intend to end up, even if you have to reset your course along the way.