Are you someone who tends to get so overwhelmed or stressed with things that you feel like throwing in the towel, just crawling up into a ball and isolating yourself until it all blows over?
At times does it feel so hard that it feels like it's not even worth it?
Then keep reading.. I want to share with you some strategies to getting through these times and simplifying things to achieve more.
We’re at the end of the second week with our 28 Day Program here at TFS, and not that this is only relevant for this program, it happens every day.
Often we see this coming into the second and third weeks of a new routine, or when people are trying to implement new changes.
Many of us, just make shit really hard for ourselves, we blow things up to be this massive mountain we have to climb.
We set insanely huge expectations on ourselves, therefore setting us up for failure.
We subconsciously decide that for us to feel like we have succeeded or are ‘happy’ we need to have ticked three thousand things off this imaginary list of difficult tasks .
What if you could feel like you have succeeded or feel like you are ‘healthy’ just by getting up on time in the morning, or for drinking 2 ltrs of water for the day, or for spending 10min of quality time with your loved ones??
It’s really that simple.
We need to learn to break things right down and make it easy for ourselves to ‘win’. You see many of us have set up the game so we never win. That game being your health, your body image, your happiness and more.
For example, people say things like: “I will be happy when I’ve changed this, that and the other about my body”
What if you could feel happy or love your body for just being able to breathe in fresh air today?
Lower the expectations on yourself, achieve more and be happier.
Now, don’t get me wrong i’m not saying that if you just do this you’re going to be healthy, lose weight etc etc. But it’s the momentum that this can build, it’s the successful mindset it can create, it’s the confidence that it can bring you to achieve the next thing and so on.
But if you’re setting a goal like losing 5kg, but are then telling yourself that to achieve it you need to be at the gym 20hrs a week, eat nothing but lettuce, never eat out with friends and 100 other things then it’s going to be very hard to achieve this, and you will feel like throwing in the towel (probably daily). Interestingly a lot of people subconsciously do this, then when it all get’s too much they have a reason or a justification as to why it didn’t work for them and often it’ll all be someone else’s fault, or it’s a time thing.
Achieving things produces dopamine (Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers) so every time you achieve something (and acknowledge it), you get a rush of dopamine, we get addicted to this, it feels good and so it prompts us to do more of what feels good, therefore building momentum to achieve bigger things in the long run.
When things do get hard, break it down, just focus on the next meal, just focus on getting to your next workout, don’t worry about the other 99 things you think you need to do this week or month. Lower the expectation on yourself and continue making progress. And celebrate that progress. Don’t beat yourself up about the gym sessions you missed, celebrate the ones you made it to.
And remember, progress = happiness.
