Takeaways:
• You don’t appreciate what you don’t earn
• You are supposed to feel frustrated, down, and out.
• Persist anyway
“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”
-Winston Churchill
One of the most important pieces of a holy mindset is cultivating the practice of persistence. We discuss it last because after “beginning with the end in mind”, after embracing failure, after cultivating intimacy, and after thinking like an engineer, none of it matters without persistence.
The thing about changing your habits is that you’ve got to start somewhere, but where you begin is NEVER where you finish.
I’ll be completely honest with you – the odds are against you that your first attempt at losing weight by changing your food and fitness habits will work.
You’ll work so hard on creating the perfect plan and the perfect triggers will the full commitment to follow-through, but…
- It won’t fit into your schedule.
- You won’t do it.
- It’s more trouble than it’s worth.
- You’ll do it for two days and then forget.
- Life will conspire to prevent you from following-through.
- You do follow-through, but hate every second.
And here’s where most women stop because they confuse the difficulty they experience getting started with the habit itself. They think that because it feels hard now, it will feel hard forever. They believe they will always struggle and quickly blame themselves, reinforcing the “tapes” they play over and over in their heads.
- “I’ll always be fat. I can’t control my eating.”
- “It’s so hard to get up early to exercise, so I’m just not meant to lose weight.”
- “I wish I liked exercise, but I just don’t. Every time I try, I hate it.”
- “I hate cooking. It’s a necessary evil, but I try to get out of the kitchen as quickly as possible.”
- “I know I won’t follow-through, so what’s the point?”
But this, sister, is exactly WHY we are spending so much time here. The truth is that ANY diet or exercise program works. There’s no “best” way for anyone, but it only works if you follow-through. You’ve probably read 20 books about dieting and tried multiple exercise programs, but the reason why you’re here is because none of them “worked.”
And they didn’t work because they didn’t become your habits.
And they didn’t become your habits for a variety of reasons, not least that it wasn’t sustainable for you.
And that’s okay.
So if you’re feeling down and out right now because you’re “behind” …
If you’re considering quitting because you aren’t following through…
If you’re playing those shame tapes in your head about how much you suck at life because you can’t get a handle on your health and fitness…
WELCOME TO THE MAJOR LEAGUES!
You’ve officially turned the corner from “nice idea” to “committed.” You’re supposed to feel this way. Everyone who has ever successfully turned diets and exercise plans into healthy lifestyles that last experiences these exact feelings.
I love this passage from Galatians:
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
This is true whether you’re doing good for others or doing good to yourself.
Just like in the parable of the persistent widow from Luke, the more we persist, the more we break down our own resistance to break through.
Now that you know one or more ways that don’t work for you right now, try again to find one that does.
Consider…
… A different time of day.
… A simpler trigger.
… Eliminating taxing things on your schedule first (so that you have more time to devote to this next week, etc.)
+++
This week was all about adopting a holy mindset to prepare yourself for what’s ahead. Unlike other health and fitness programs, you don’t get a cookie cutter program to follow. While this is tempting, it puts a bandaid on the real problem – habits that no longer serve your goals. When you get your mindset right, any result you want is only a matter of time.
Next you’ll take this week’s work to dig into the habits you want to build or improve upon. Can’t wait!
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- What do you normally do after you fail?
- What could you do instead to quickly transition out of failure?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.[/text_block]