A Christmas Gift To Myself

I started 2018 with some great intentions, fitness-wise.

I was going to really firm up a daily exercise routine.

I was going to test for my 3rd degree black belt in June.

I was going to do a lot more exercise outside.

Instead, I ended up with a new writing contract (which was good news) which changed the way my days unfolded.

And I broke my wrist (which wasn’t good news) which took several months to get sorted. I knew that it would be over 6 weeks from the break until the cast came off but I didn’t know that it would be many more weeks after that before I could spar at Taekwondo.*

And that was just the first six months of 2018.

The whole year has been like that – I’d have something that seemed like a solid plan, well thought out, and then some metaphorical wrench would come out of nowhere and mess up the works.

It wasn’t all downside, though.

I had some success with short term challenges – a month of yoga, a few weeks of meditation, a week of specific patterns practice.

And I successfully kept up some practices – regular Taekwondo, some walks, some yoga, that sort of thing but I didn’t make much progress. I’m sure that, if I could go back in time, I would be able to tweak the way I went through my days so I could have fit in more exercise but I didn’t have the benefit of that overview while I was living them.

And, I had to recognize that having ADHD can mean that when I get thrown for a loop – in small or large ways – it can take me longer to get back to where I started.

I’m refusing to be hard on myself about the whole mess though. In fact, I’ve decided to do quite the opposite.

My Christmas gifts to myself this year are compassion and understanding, about my fitness and about everything else.

I did what I could with the resources I had available at the time and I am okay with that.

It didn’t work out like I had planned and that’s okay, too.

As for my fitness, I’m going to take the temporary lull in my routine over the next week or so and do a little extra yoga or take a few more walks.

And, for fitness and for everything else, I’m going to get a bit more specific in my plans (and my back-up plans) for the new year.

My focus is going to be on establishing routines so it is easier to get my work done and my workouts in.

And, no matter what the next year brings, I think that I will give myself the same gifts in 2019 – compassion and understanding never go out of style.

I have lots to spare if you need some.

*That and some other factors changed the timing of my belt test to February 2019.