As you are moving ahead with your plans to add or maintain fitness and wellness practices to your life, please keep a spirit of celebration about your hard work.
Please consciously choose to congratulate yourself for the things you got done – even if they were smaller than you planned.
Even with careful consideration for how things usually go for us, our plans for our practices get made before our days and we can’t always fit everything in.
Instead of being hard on ourselves about the differences between our plans and our practices, first let’s try celebrating what we DID accomplish.
And when that celebrating is done, we can be kind to ourselves about what didn’t get done and make a new plan that addresses the differences.
If today was just a weird day that probably won’t spill its weirdness into tomorrow, you can keep the same plan and maybe just move your timing around a little.
If you feel like your initial plan was too big, you can pick a smaller version for tomorrow.
If your plan was too complicated, you can simplify it.
If your plan depended on some external factor, you can make adjustments to address that.
Either way, though, keep in mind that the problem was the plan, not you, so there is no need to judge yourself harshly.
We want to make our fitness and wellness plans part of our lives, either for the short term or the long term, and the best way to do that is to celebrate the parts that go right and adjust for the parts that went awry.
For example, one of my goals this month is to write a Go Team! post every day. This post isn’t exactly what I planned because I have a migraine and I need to rest. In the spirit of self-kindness, I am celebrating the post I wrote (Go me!) and making adjustments by planning to include the rest of my original ideas for this post in a different post later. Look at me, taking my own advice!
Anyway!
To help you celebrate, here’s your gold star for your efforts today, no matter what they were.
Your hard work counts!
A drawing of a gold star. Inside the star are sections of lines running in one direction adjacent to a section of lines running in a different direction. The space between each of the line is coloured in one of two different shades of gold pen so the colours alternate.
Our struggles with change doesn’t mean that we are doing things wrong or that there is something wrong with us.
Thinking that way is like thinking there is something wrong with you if you struggle to lift a 250lb boulder that happens to be in your way.
Sure, some people can easily lift something of that weight and size but most of us will struggle. We’ll need to get help, construct some sort of lever, or change our plans so we can leave it where it is.
But when faced with that boulder, very few people will be hard on themselves for not being able to lift it. No one will be telling themselves that it’s just mind over matter or that they *should* be able to lift it, that they *should* be stronger, or that everyone else can easily lift it.
When faced with a large boulder, most of us recognize that the boulder is the issue, not us.
And recognizing that the boulder is the issue puts us in the right mindset for dealing with it.
If we need to move a boulder, we’ll make a plan, we’ll get some help – we’ll lure physics away from Team Boulder and get it to join Team Us.
What does this boulder analogy have to do with your plans for January and beyond?
Change is a big boulder, my friends, you probably can’t move it with sheer force of will.
When it comes to making changes, creating a plan and recruiting some help will make things a lot easier.
Your plan doesn’t need to be elaborate and it can be flexible. Really, you just need to decide on something you want to try, determine the smallest possible version of that thing that will count as done, decide on a time when you’ll do it, and celebrate when it’s done.
That could look like this:
1) I want to add more push-up to my daily routine.
2) As long as I do 1 extra push-up per day, it counts.
3) I’ll add at least 1 push-up to my warmups for my morning exercise. If I can’t fit it in then, I will do 1 push-up while the kettle boils for my tea.
4) Once my push-up is done, I’ll draw a gold star on my calendar for the day (or add a star emoji to a digital calendar.)
As for recruiting help – that might look like asking someone for advice on push-ups, watching push-up videos, leaving a mat on your floor to make push-ups easier, asking an encouraging friend to inquire if you have done your push-up today, or anything else that makes that new habit seem easier.
And if none of this helps you to do a daily push-up, don’t be hard on yourself.
Instead, remember the boulder.
The problem is not you – it’s the challenge inherent in making changes.
So, instead of being mean to yourself about push-ups, try to find a way to get help with that metaphorical boulder.
Maybe you don’t really want to do push-ups- you can do something else to get the same results.
Maybe the times you’ve picked aren’t good times for push-ups – experiment with other times.
Maybe there’s some discomfort there that you hadn’t really noticed before (Do you dislike getting down on the floor? Does your shoulder hurt when trying to do a push-up? Are you starting with full body floor push-ups when you need to start with wall push-ups?
No matter, keep your focus on the problem – the boulder- instead of on trying to figure out what’s (allegedly!) wrong with you.
You can make the changes you want to make, you can add and subtract things from your routines, but you need the right plan and the right help to do it.
And here’s your gold star for your efforts to figure those things out today.
Go Team Us!
Image description: a small white piece of paper featuring a shiny gold star surrounded by green dots rests on a green surface
Whether you are starting a new habit, expanding a previous habit, trying to change a habit that doesn’t serve you, or you have decided to wait before starting any of that, I’m wondering if you have taken any notes about your plan.
I‘m not suggesting that you write a thesis, I’m suggesting that you take a few minutes and write – on screen, on paper, or into a voice memo – about what you are up to fitness-wise or wellness-wise at the moment.
For example, if you are doing one of the myriad January yoga challenges, write a bit about why you want to do it, how you feel now and how you hope to feel later, what poses you like, what you enjoy about yoga, what challenges you.
If you are sticking with your existing program, write a bit about why that program serves you well, what you get out of it, what feels good about it.
If you are waiting to decide, changing a habit, adding a layer to something you are already doing, write a bit about that process, why it serves you, what feels good about it.
The purpose of this writing process is to help you be really clear on what you want. It’s about showing you that you. Are about yourself and what you’re doing, about showing that your choices have meaning and that they matter to you.
Oh, and by the way, if writing isn’t your thing, you can also just talk aloud to yourself or talk to a supportive friend. The goal is to create clarity for yourself, not to create a writing assignment for its own sake!
And even if you only have a vague idea that you might like to add something to your routine but you don’t know what it might be yet, writing about that will show you that you aren’t avoiding thinking about it, you are just following your own process and figuring things out.
Writing about all of this stuff can help you settle your mind about it and can help you commit to your decision – even if your decision is to decide later!
The process of adding new things to your life – even carefully planned incremental things – can be challenging.
And I’m hoping to help you be as kind to yourself as you can while you face the challenges inherent to the process.
Writing a few notes-to-self for clarity can be an important way to practice self-kindness and to create a reminder of why what you want matters.
But whether you write those notes down, say them aloud, give those ideas some thought, or do something else to encourage yourself, I hope you celebrate your efforts today – no matter what they are.
Here’s your gold star, Team!
A photo of a drawing of a cartoonish gold star with a happy expression on its face. The background of the drawing consists of thin, black diagonal lines. The drawing is resting on a wooden table.
I have trouble planning in December so I usually call January Planuary and do my planning at that point.
For 2024, I am using some lessons from last year and just using Planuary to identify some really general goals/ways I want to feel and then I will take things month by month from there.
What does this photo have to do with my post? Not much…unless you consider that I am trying to use ‘things I like’ as a guideline for my plans and I really like how this bulb looks with the dusting of snow on top so I followed through on my plan to use it. 😉 image description: a red decorative bulb hangs in the leafless branches of a lilac tree in my front yard. There is a light dusting of snow on the lawn, on the branches of the tree and on the bulb.
The long version of the post goes like this:
Some combination of ADHD, personality, and December busy-ness has always made it tricky for me to create any plans that are supposed to start on January 1.
In fact, in December, I am usually scrambling to finish things up and January is just a hazy time in the distant future.
For the longest time, I was really hard on myself about not having January plans in place when a given year started. Gradually, though, I learned to accept the way my Decembers usually play out and use January for my planning instead.
In fact, I even renamed January to Planuary so I made it clear to myself that I wasn’t behind or making a mess of things. Instead, I was choosing to plan in the first part of the year.
That February approach helped remind me how I do much better when I work in a relatively limited time frame and when I strike a good balance between structure and flexibility.
Deciding to finish 2023 soft gave me lots of time to think about how I might want to approach 2024 and I decided that I wanted to continue soft.
Part of that plan involves using Planuary a little differently than I used to.
I’m not making long-term specific plans for this year.
I’m not even going to try.
Instead, I’m using Planuary to identify how I generally want to feel – physically and mentally – overall during this year.
Once I have that figured out (and once I’ve done a little journaling about it) I’ll decide on some actions that will help me to amble in the direction of that feeling over the course of the month.
At the end of Planuary, I’ll see if I am closer to how I want to feel and that information will help me determine the details of my February activities.
This feels like a soft way for me to continue – no pressure but a bit of direction and a loose kind of structure.
And it feels doable and hopeful, two things that are always important to me but especially so at the moment.
Do you already have your plans in place for this year? Or are you doing a Planuary-type thing?
If you have plans are they detailed or are they fairly loose?
Are you keeping things soft like me or do you like a bit more intensity in your day-to-day?
Just so you know, this plan meets with Khalee’s approval. Image description: a photo of Khalee, my light-haired, medium-sized dog, lying on some blankets on my bed. She is lying on her stomach with her snout extended toward the camera and she looks adorable.
My last two posts have been really introspective and reflective as I slowly adjust to a world without my Dad in it. I have really appreciated your supportive comments and your messages via email and Facebook.
I have lots more to say about grief and movement and mindfulness but I haven’t gotten those thoughts into shareable form yet.
So, instead, I am falling back on a Go Team post:
My dear Team, please, please please, cut yourself some slack.
Nobody feels on top of things.
Everyone I know is feeling overwhelmed.
Just about every conversation I hear is full of apologies, full of explanations of delays, and descriptions of things people intended to do but didn’t quite get to.
And while I appreciate the fact that we all feel the need to explain, I would love to see us all recognize the fact that everyone is doing their best with the time, energy, and resources that they have.
We are all dealing with a lot of expectations from ourselves and from other people and often those expectations aren’t particularly reasonable.
There is NOTHING to be gained by being hard on ourselves about the ways that we fall short.
Instead, we need to be kinder to ourselves.
And not just when we fall short of expectations. We need to be kinder to ourselves when we are making plans or creating expectations in the first place.
We need to give ourselves a break.
We’re just a bunch of humans who are, frankly, poorly trained for the world we are living in and we are doing our best to respond appropriately to a variety of pressures.
Sure, there are ways we can improve those responses and there are ways to ensure that our actions align more closely with our values but those changes can only come from a place of self-compassion.
Like all of those memes say – if self-judgement worked, we’d all be perfect by now.
So let’s pour some energy into self-compassion, hey?
Here’s your gold star for your efforts to cut yourself some slack today.
Image description: a drawing of a cartoonish gold happy face star with a background of blue lines with a sprinkle of small blue dots.
Note: I am reserving judgment on April though. Who knows what might come after March? Could be anything, really. It’s the very distant future, extremely Not Now.
Before we dive into super-real, and definitely happening right now, March, let’s roll back to the very distant and hazy past and see how the ancient month of February went. (ADHD time is a bizarre and fluid thing, no?)
My plan for the month was to extend my walks a little, to follow my meditation program, and to do at least one hip mobility exercise before bed.
Walking
I didn’t extend every walk but I extended as many as I could. We had some especially erratic weather in February – lots of snow storms, some warm(ish) temperatures and some ridiculously cold temperatures. The pathways and sidewalks and streets have varied from clear and easily-traveled to hellish landscapes of lumpy ice and deep patches of softer snow. Between temperatures that were too cold for the dog’s safety and terrain that was too uneven for my safety, it was tricky to be consistent with longer walks. But, that being said, when things were safe for me and for Khalee, we added a little extra time to our adventures.
Khalee on one of the better days for walking in February. Image description: Khalee, a light haired dog in a red sweater with white hearts on it, is wearing a harness and leash and standing on a snowy path. The image is a sort of top down view and Khalee is standing sideways and looking back past me as I take the photo.
Meditation
I managed to meditate fairly regularly but I didn’t follow the program of daily meditation I had planned. BUT because my plan was short-term, it felt easier to keep course-correcting towards meditating daily and, as a result, I meditated more often than I have in the past. Also, I became more aware of when stress was making me breathe shallowly and took conscious, slow, ribcage-expanding breaths to help myself feel better. Those breaths aren’t meditation per se but it is a mindful style of breathing so I’m counting them as part of my meditation practice overall.
Hip Mobility
The hip mobility exercises are where I really shone in February. I didn’t use a tracker but since I stacked the exercises into my bedtime routine I was able to do them at least 20/28 evenings. I found a big difference in my hips and lower back as a result.
Imagine me kind of doing this but I am brushing my teeth and reading an ebook at the same time. ADHD who? Image description: a GIF of cartoon character Daffy Duck standing in a spotlight doing hip circles. His eyes are mostly closed and it looks like he may be whistling. He’s probably trying to look sexy but he mostly looks odd.
So, as I think back on the ancient history of February 2023 I am comfortable with declaring it a success. And I think I owe that success to two things: 1) only planning one month at a time 2) reflective journaling.
A Short Reflection on Reflective Fitness Journaling in February
I wrote in it for the first two Sundays but then I had two busy Sundays in a row. Logically, I should have moved my journaling plan to a different day but I didn’t.
BUT
Because the first two weeks were so helpful, I was in reflective mode even though I didn’t always write things in my journal. So, I was still getting some of the benefits even with a less structured version of the practice.
And being in reflective mode really helped me to be kinder to myself about how I approached my other practices and it guided me to spend a little extra time figuring out how to fit movement and meditation into my daily or weekly schedule.
My conclusion? Even imperfect reflection practices are extremely beneficial.
March Plans
So, obviously I am going to keep up my reflective journaling plans but I am going to aim for 4 written reflections – one each Monday.
I’m keeping my evening hip mobility exercise but I am going to add in a shoulder mobility exercise every morning when I take my meds (or at least when I get my reminder to take my meds.)
I already get at least 20 minutes of movement every day but for (the rest of) March, I’m going to aim to do that movement before noon each day. Might be yoga, might be a walk with Khalee, might be strength training, but the goal is to have it happen earlier in the day.
And I’m going to keep working on that daily meditation practice – even if it is ‘just’ that mindful breathing I described above.
Let’s see how this unfolds as we March on!
No one said marching had to be dull, right? Image description; A GIF of a person person in a marching band uniform, holding a baton by their side, is moving across a field by hopping on one leg while kicking the other leg out in front of them. When they reach the centre, two other people in uniform are waiting there doing a similar movement on one spot. The stands in the distance are full of spectators.
Despite my best intentions, I never quite got a grip on Planuary.
At the end of December, I really thought that I would be able to take my time throughout January and slowly build a plan for my year. Alas, life got in the way and I ended up taking January pretty much day by day.
That was ok, especially since it was the only possible way for me to proceed at that point.
Basically, I spent January puttering along in all areas of my life.
A black and white GIF of two penguins moving slowly along.
On the well-being side of things, I did yoga when it felt right, meditated when it felt right, took walks, did some stretches, and, last week, I did some rowing. Those things were all pretty good and I am happy about trusting myself to do what I needed to do on any given day but it did feel a bit aimless.
I’m not judging myself there, aimless worked for me this month but, of course, being aimless didn’t give me the cumulative-work-toward-a-goal feeling that I was looking for.
I really wanted January to feel like I was solving a puzzle, like I was figuring out what I wanted to do and creating a plan for doing it. Instead, metaphorically, I gathered a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces, sorted a few of them and then went on to a logic puzzle before dropping that in favour of a riddle. All of those are good things, all of them are useful and enjoyable, but they didn’t come to any sort of satisfactory conclusion.
So, here I am at the end of January without a plan for the rest of my year.
And I know that I still can’t wrap my brain around ‘things I want to do in 2023.’
I also know that I don’t want to just keep wandering aimlessly.
So, I’m picking a middle ground and looking at February as a self-contained unit in which I can work on things that will add up throughout that month but that may not extend into March and may not even be part of a bigger project.
Sidenote: In my current approach, March doesn’t even exist yet so I can’t possibly plan fitness things to do in a possibly fictional month.
A month is really tangible for my ADHD brain, I can see how things might play out in that period of time and, barring a catastrophe, I usually have a good sense of what is coming up for me in the next month. A year, on the other hand, feels like forever and like no time, all at once and my brain gets lost in the simultaneous limits and possibilities.
A GIF of Garfield, an orange cartoon cat with black triangular markings, pulls pages off a day by day calendar that is in a stack attached to the wall. Every day is a Monday, despite the changing dates.
So, while I usually have a good sense of things I want to have in my life in ‘the future’, I struggle to scale things and plan them out over a year. I end up either creating a plan that is too rigid or too flexible and I end up spending waaaaaaay too much time recalibrating.
(In retrospect, I guess I have always thought that this issue was one of imprecise planning (hence the Planuary plan) but now I’m wondering how much time-perception factors in.)
So, instead of thinking of something I want from this year and then breaking that down into monthly pieces, I am approaching this year from the opposite direction.
I’m going to choose some appealing activities to work on during February and I’ll keep track of how much I do and how I feel about them.
Once March feels a little less fictional (I mean, assuming it ever does 😉 ), I’ll see if I want to keep going with those activities or if I want to move on to something else.
Right now, my thinking is going a bit like this, “I want to meditate regularly so, for February, I’m going to follow the program in the journal I got for Christmas.” “I want to go on longer walks so, for February, I am going to take a slightly longer route.” “I want more hip flexibility so, for February, I am going to do a hip exercise before bed.”
I’m not trying to work up to a certain level. I’m not trying to accumulate a certain number of steps, a certain number of meditation minutes or days, I’m not trying to be able to measure up to a certain level of hip-flexibility. I am not considering this the groundwork for doing the next stage of anything.
I am taking February as a self-contained, measurable, tangible period of time in which to try some specific things. I don’t have to wonder about the next steps. I don’t have to think about how those things fit into the greater context of my year. I just have to focus on February and trust that what I need in March will become apparent as time goes on.
Again, assuming that March actually becomes real at some point. 😉
Image description: digital timer set to 02:00, framed by a circle with options “cancel” and “resume” underneath.
Early January is crammed with all sorts of advice about how to make those January 1st changes stick. I have often dissed the idea of resolutions as a sort of set-up for failure. But this year I’m actually in a change-is-good mindset, and I have high hopes for the blank page that a new year seems to offer. Having said that, like so many other people, I have been here before. And those high hopes for change often feel dashed by the end of the month. So how to make things stick?
One way that’s getting some attention (or at least Sam brought it to my attention) is “the two-minute rule.” According to the article, “How the two-minute rule can help you beat procrastination and start new habits,” consistently spending two minutes on something can lead to transformative change. The rule says: starting a new habit should never take more than two minutes. It is a take on author and productivity consultant David Allen’s rule that “if it takes less than two minutes, then do it now.”
I am a big advocate of starting small and “doing less.” That’s why Sam tagged me when she posted about the two-minute rule. But even for me, two minutes seems so negligible as to be almost pointless. It’s not, though. I recognize that line of thinking — the “what’s the point of two minutes” line — as a mind-game to talk myself out of something. We have been conditioned to think that if something isn’t really hard or challenging, then it’s pointless. But really, if the alternative is NOTHING at all, then what’s the harm of doing just a little something towards your goal.
I’ve recently signed up for some writing coaching again with Daphne Gray-Grant, the Publication Coach. In the application form for her program, she asks how much time you’re planning to commit to your project each day. The first option is 5 minutes. The options go up from there: 15 minutes, 20-30 minutes, and if you want to choose 60 minutes or more there is a note that says you will need Daphne’s permission. Why? Because as a rule, people aim too high and then they lose steam and give up. Instead, making progress in small increments gives you a manageable habit that you can realistically maintain.
Knowing all of this, I still felt a voice in my head telling me I’m an under-achiever when I ticked the 5 minutes/day box. But I ticked that box because I can realistically expect not to feel overwhelmed by spending five minutes a day, five days a week on my book. It seems like ridiculously little time, but if the other option is spending no time at all on it, then I’m sure I will get further with five minutes a day than with zero minutes a day.
Having set that low expectation in the past and worked with it, I can also be confident that at least some days I will work beyond the five-minute timer. And I think where workouts are concerned, this is even more likely. I remember my yoga instructor once saying that if you want to start a home yoga practice, start by just putting down the mat. Next time you might put down the mat and do child’s pose. After that, you might put down the mat, do child’s pose, and follow it with downward dog. It actually works. Similarly, if you pack your gym bag, go to the gym, and commit to spending two or five minutes doing something there, that’s a start. It’s a small start, but doing it three days a week is the start of a habit. And in the end, that’s the goal: to establish a habit.
This year, besides my writing habit, my other “start small” thing is to spend time in the workout room in my building. We’ve got brand new treadmills and spin bikes, and enough free weights and weight machines to get a decent workout in. My goal is to get myself down there for at least five minutes, four days a week. Even as I type that, I can feel that voice saying “five lousy minutes — gimme a break.” But is five minutes better than nothing? Yes. And it gets me over the initial hump of not even putting on my workout gear or getting to the room, which is arguably the bigger challenge than making best use of it once I’m there.
I encourage everyone who is excited about the fresh pages of 2023 to experiment with starting small, especially anyone with a history of jumping in with both feet and then hitting a wall before the month is out. The goal is to establish a new habit, not to transform overnight into a completely different person. We are a week in and it’s not too late to moderate expectations, even for those of us who went out of the gate a little more ambitiously than is sustainable. Small habits grow. And even if kept small, they yield fruit. The voice in the head that says “this isn’t enough” needs to be challenged, perhaps with a stronger voice that says, “Oh really? Just watch!”
Is there anything you’ve been wanting to start that you can give two minutes a day to, a few times a week? Go for it!
I’m trying to figure out what to include in a fitness journal.
I love the idea of recording my plans and ideas and then writing my reflections on my practices but I know better than to try to put all of that onto a blank page.
If I have an open-ended journal, I will feel like I have to write AllOfTheThings AllOfTheTime and I will start avoiding journaling.
This is ironic, of course, because writing is one of the things that comes to me most easily…except when I start trying to do too much at once. Image description; A GIF of cartoon character Lisa Simpson exclaiming that writing is the hardest thing ever.
I looked for a fitness journal I could buy – thinking that a structured set of questions would be like ‘containers’ for my thoughts – but mostly I found fitness trackers.
Keeping track of the details may be part of my journaling but what I am really interested in is recording and reflecting on my physical and emotional experiences.
So, I am taking a DIY approach – choosing a set of 3-5 fitness-related questions to put on an index card that I will use as a bookmark in a regular journal.
I figure that if I have a set of questions ready it will not only help to structure my thoughts but I can also just number the answers in my journal and not create any obstacles for myself by having to rewrite the questions each time I journal.
I’ve found lots of suggested questions online (see links below) and I am mulling those over – not looking for perfect questions, just seeing what feels interesting to me.
But, speaking of interesting, I’d be interested to know what *you* think would make a good reflective question for a fitness journal.
What do find useful to consider about your fitness practices?
What do you wish you had made note of when you started something new?
What kinds of feelings or experiences do you think I should reflect on?
Image description: A GIF of Moira Rose from the TV show Schitt’s Creek dressed in black with a huge elaborate necklace and wearing heavy black eyeliner and dark red lipstick. She is asking “What?! I’m simply asking questions.”
If you’re interested, here are some of the articles I found online. (I think Sam suggested the first one in a previous Facebook post.)
Before I begin today, I’d like to remind you that you do NOT have to make changes, start resolutions, or make new year plans. If you feel drawn towards those kinds of things, that’s cool. If you hate those kinds of things, that’s cool, too.
And, if you are a resolutions type of person with your plans for the year all set up and you’re working away at them – go you! We all need to find a way that works for us and keeps us feeling good about ourselves as we move forward. In your case, today’s post might be good to have in your metaphorical back pocket in case you need it one day.
Meanwhile, I’m over here with no actual plans yet, just a vague sense of wanting to improve my overall well-being through movement and rest this year.
I know that will take some planning and some up-front work and experimentation but I need to do some thinking and writing and research to figure out the details.
And I’m ok with that. In fact, as I noted in a recent post, I am in Planuary not January right now.
If you are also in Planuary, or just if you are still deciding what you want to do, or if you know what you want to do but are still getting in gear to do it, I’d like to invite you to decide something small.
By that, I mean to pick a little something that is at least somewhat related to a direction you may want to move in. (That might be the vaguest sentence I have ever written. Bahahaha!)
This isn’t about deciding on Step 1. It isn’t about keeping yourself busy. This is a way of anchoring the space you created yesterday.
So, for example, I know that I want to strengthen my core this year. And I know that any exercises for my core will help. I also know that I will need to get specific at some point or I won’t actually follow though.
But I don’t have a plan or strategy *yet.* Right now, I just have a sense that this is a direction I want to move towards.
So, yesterday, I decided that since on most days I can exercise in the evening, I would create mental space in my evening routine for exercise.
And since I don’t have a plan in place, anything would do for now.
So, I picked 5 core exercises I like and did 5 reps of each one.
It was a manageable amount. It had defined parameters (i.e. it was clear when I was done.) And it felt like I did something useful for my eventual plan.
I didn’t have to overdo it. I didn’t have to create a huge framework for future fitness. I could just decide on something small that would move me in the right direction.
And it is something I can keep doing while I decide what ELSE I want to do.
And I’d like to invite you to give this a try.
Whatever you are mulling over right now, decide on a small version to try. See how it feels, physically and mentally.
If it felt good – stick with it while you figure out what’s next. If it was too tiring or if it felt bad – adjust things for next time.
Note: Judging from my personal past experience, there’s a decent chance that your ‘something small’ will only seem small in comparison to your envisioned future result. When you try it, you may find that your ‘something small’ was actually fairly big. If that’s the case, don’t despair – just go smaller.
And, of course, please be kind to yourself in the process. Making plans, making changes, and trying new things can all be challenging, tricky, stressful processes. If you find these things hard, try to give yourself time to adjust and to recover – you need what you need and trying to ‘tough it out’ may just make things harder. Sure, we all need to persevere and push through sometimes but we can’t stay in that mode all the time.
Here’s your gold star for your efforts today whether you are working your plan, working on a plan, or working towards considering working on a plan.
Image description – a cartoonish drawing of a happy face gold star with big eyes and blue eyelids. The background of the image is overlapping blue lines and the corners are blue blobs.
