No matter how long you’re doing a routine/habit/hobby, the reality is you’ll eventually fall out of it. It’s unavoidable.
Maybe it’s traveling, or sickness or injury or something pops up at work that derails you. Eventually, SOMETHING will knock you out of your routine.
This could be small hobbies like meditation and reading or larger ones like the time you wake up every day and your dieting trends.
Things happen, whether it be laziness or legitimate excuse, that derail us from the streak that we had going. It could have been a week long, month long, even year long streak…eventually something will derail you.
This is why I believe what matters most is not how long you can maintain a routine for, but instead how quickly you can get back into it once you have fell off.
If you had something disrupt your routine, how quickly can you jump back in? Do you take one day off, or does a day turn into a week turn into a month?
Maybe you had a particularly bad 6 months and got knocked off your routine a few times…how quickly did you get back on each time?
Sickness, injury, these things will happen. Sometimes they can knock us off our course suddenly and for extended periods of time.
But what is your mindset like while you recover? How well are you preparing yourself for when you can return? Are you hungry to get better?
If you notice that you have a tendency to fall out of your routine, keep track of how quickly you come back to it. Are you improving over time? Are you getting better at getting back on the horse more quickly?
OR are you more slow to get on the horse?
More procrastination. More excuses. More waiting.
In life we are going to get thrown off of our horses. We are going to lose our routines. No one is perfect.
What matters is that we can notice when we have slipped and make a conscious effort to get back into it.
To have the awareness that you aren’t being the best you could be
So the next time you miss a day of your workout, THAT’S FINE!
Instead of beating yourself up about missing one, motivate yourself for ONLY MISSING ONE.
Motivate yourself to jump into the next workout the next day. CRAVE IT.
When you jump back into your activity again you will feel more refreshed, ready, and excited to tackle the challenges that you face.
It’s easy to ride a horse once you’re on it. But if you fall off of it? OUCH!
For one you have to deal with the pain of falling off of the horse.
To make it worse you have to now use extra energy to GET BACK ON.
It’s hard work to get back on. Harder than the first. Harder each time you get knocked off.
Such is life.
When life throws us off our habits, we FEEL THAT PAIN.
Once you’ve stopped a habit it also takes MORE ENERGY to get back into doing them again.
It’s easy to trot your way through life on a pony.
It’s hard to gallop full speed ahead jumping over obstacles.
It’s harder to gallop full speed ahead jumping over obstacles and then fall off and get back on and do it again.
The harder we push ourselves in life, the harder it will hurt when we fall out of our routines, and the more energy it will take to get ourselves back into them.
I respect anyone who has the energy to take the hard path. To do what is hard but what is right.
That is why I respect those who put in the hard work of jumping back on the horse.
Whatever your struggle is, put in the work, get on the horse and ride like your life depends on it.
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Also published on Medium.
Adorable! 🙂