Did you know that January 17th is national “ditch your resolutions” day? Now, I’m not a big believer in “resolutions” per say because they are usually more of a ‘pull the rug out from under you’ idea rather than a sensible well thought out goal.
Goals are attainable when created properly, not from a hail mary approach.
But it’s this time of year that people, refreshed and renewed from the sense of hope of a new year begin to falter.
As I’ve been coaching this past month, things have gone from ‘GREAT!’ to stalled in a mere 4 weeks.
It’s not that the people haven’t had what they needed.
It’s not that they haven’t wanted ‘it’ bad enough.
What it typically comes down to is a very basic and instinctual nervous system response of fight, flight or freeze.
I know we’ve talked about this some in the past but today I wanted to shed light on a different part of this issue.
If we’re determined to reach a goal, in the right mindset we will ‘fight’ to make it happen.
If we want to reach a goal but feel uncomfortable with some aspect, even after we start we will run away (‘flight’).
It’s the 3rd part I want to tell you about today because it’s this ‘freeze’ issue that is affecting so many people right now.
They started out great in January, they were determined. In fact, everything felt great until … something fell ‘off the wagon’.
Maybe they got sick for a couple of days or maybe they had a meal out with friends, perhaps they tried to start something new like meal planning or working on time management. In any case, their pattern of success was broken and since it wasn’t a well ingrained habit yet, it kind of hung them out to dry.
Situations like that can cause a ‘freeze’ effect where if we can’t do something 100% perfectly all the time, then we don’t know how to handle 80%. In most people’s minds, if it’s not 100% they failed.
Here’s the biggest thing to know about failure– you can only fail once you STOP trying.
If you had a hiccup in the midst of your new schedule, it’s just that- a mild bump in the road that can be overcome when you’re ready to try again.
There IS room for “good enough”.
Good enough begins the journey to victory without overwhelming us back into a ‘freeze’ state.
I know too many people who let the freeze continue and it ultimately leads to failure because they refuse to take a step forward.
So whether it’s meal planning, getting your exercises in daily, eating well or even managing your time well, START TODAY.
Today is the best day to start. It doesn’t have to be perfect (let’s face it, we aren’t and never will be that) it doesn’t have to be pretty…it just has to begin.
Pick one small thing you can do today that will begin moving you forward toward your goals. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water today
- Get 7-9 hours of sleep tonight
- Exercise today
- Write out what you will be eating this week
- Plan “you” time each day this week
- Eat veggies and protein with each meal today
There are so many options to choose from the only important thing is that you choose something you CAN do to begin with today and when tomorrow comes, choose another.