We are now at the middle of February and most people have probably given up on their 2020 goals. That is the harsh reality. Or, if you have not given up on your goals, you have probably felt a huge decrease in motivation from when you made them at the start of the year.
What do you do now? It will be very easily to slip back into old ways. Habits that have been with us most of our lives are extremely hard to break. However, we can decide to make new ones. Our bad habits may not go away, but we can create some new habits that can reduce the impact of our bad ones.
It is important that we keep moving forward in our goals. The last thing we want to do is give up. Stopped training for a week? All good, today is a day to get back at it. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Today is a good day to start creating that healthier habit.
Motivation will not always be there. That is why we have to rely on small, consistent habits, that if done enough, will start to become automatic. What is one thing you can do today to get you back on track? Replace water with pop for one meal. Wake up five minutes earlier. Show up at the gym. Go to bed 10 minutes earlier. Walk down the stairs rather than take the elevator. These aren’t huge feats of success, but if done long enough can result in remarkable change. One of my favorite quotes is as follows, “sometimes we are succeeding so slowly that we feel like we are failing.” I believe this was Gary Keller that said this on a Tim Ferris podcast. Imagine looking back ten years from now at the difference of taking a thousand small steps in the right direction vs. the wrong direction. Your life could look very different.
Not all of your positive actions are going to come from some heavy dose of motivation. A lot of our success will depend on doing small things when we really don’t feel like it. This is when it is important to remember to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t lose your momentum. Don’t feel like going to the gym? At least go for a walk instead. Don’t feel like eating a healthy meal? At least eat some veggies.
It’s not all about the things we do, but how we do them. What kind of person are we becoming by our daily actions? Another great quote is “how you do anything is how you do everything.” Not sure who said this. You are your small actions. Your daily habits. If you want to see a better life for yourself in the future that starts by what you decide to do in this moment. I went to a goal setting retreat with my wife back in December and one of the presenters said, “for all of you who decided health was going to be one of the things you change, what will you decide to have for dinner tonight?” A lot of times we think we have to make a great plan to achieve remarkable results. However, most of the time we just need to make better small decisions.
Start today by deciding to do one thing better. How can you put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward? Just because you might have fallen off the wagon doesn’t mean you can’t start again today. Your life begins again in this moment. What will you decide to do? Will you keep moving forward?
Win the day.