𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤
Tell me if this sounds familiar...
𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 - You spring out of bed, full of excitement to crush the day. After all, it's Monday and that's the day you said you start getting serious about losing weight. You get your workout in and stick to your meal plan for the day. You are on fire.
𝘛𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 - You spring out of bed again, fueled by yesterday's success and start tackling your day. You have a couple extra snacks as you're preparing the kid's food for the day, but you try not to dwell on it. You still get your workout in and mark the day as a win.
𝘞𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 - A little less "spring" as you roll out of bed this morning. The weight of the day feels exhausting... work is extra demanding and your kids aren't making life any easier. You opt for an easier route for dinner and order pizza for the family. Because of your heavy schedule, you skipped your workout but managed to take the dog for a short walk.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 - You have to peel yourself out of bed this morning as you're feeling more groggy than the past few days. The thought of a workout sounds impossible, so you tell yourself you'll do it in the evening. Because you strayed from your original meal plan last night, you don't have anything planned for lunch. Instead, you swing by the fast food joint near work on your break. Work goes late, so you aren't able to fit in your workout as promised and you start to beat yourself up for it.
𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 - You hit the snooze several times and miss your opportunity to workout again. At this point you're debating whether you'll just restart on Monday or whether your life will even allow for you to be successful.
I can't tell you how many times I've experienced this personally and had clients tell me this exact timeline.
So how do we get out of this vicious cycle that is destroying our ability to be successful?
𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝟑 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞:
𝟏. 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. You are not going to go from 0-100 overnight. Doing so requires a MASSIVE shift, one that is extremely difficult to maintain when you haven't laid the foundation.
A realistic expectation is deciding how you will be 10% better this week vs last week. (One less day of take out, 1 workout completed, track one day's worth of food, etc).
Sure it doesn't sound sexy at all! But you know what else doesn't sound sexy? Starting over 3240 times.
𝟐. 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. This is where the mindset shift takes place. You can't set goals but then go through the same routine that has kept you stuck. You have to intentionally make choices that are going to level you up from your old habits.
For example, having a daily intention of eating a veggie with your breakfast. Or having a daily intention of drinking half a gallon of water.
𝟑. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲. Whether you become the bully that metaphorically throws yourself up against a locker or name calls you in the middle of class, the result is the same: Shame.
The moment you shame yourself for not being successful, you've just killed any hope to be able to pull yourself out of it.
Shame leads to the negative thought spiral of "I always fail, why do I even try?"
Instead, learn from it and pivot.
Accept that things didn't go perfectly, and learn how you can be better tomorrow.
You see, success is about 80% mindset, and 20% action.
So the next time that you start to fall off track from your plan, I want you to ask yourself....
Did I set realistic expectations? 𝘐𝘧 𝘯𝘰, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 - 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵 - 𝘥𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸.
Did I set daily intentions? 𝘐𝘧 𝘯𝘰, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 - 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵 - 𝘥𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸.
Are you currently shaming yourself because of it? 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘊𝘜𝘛 𝘐𝘛 𝘖𝘜𝘛!
𝘓𝘌𝘈𝘙𝘕 - 𝘗𝘐𝘝𝘖𝘛 - 𝘋𝘖 𝘉𝘌𝘛𝘛𝘌𝘙 𝘛𝘖𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘙𝘖𝘞.