Last week was about analyzing your habits to ensure they will lead to success.  This week is about giving yourself grace when you falter.

Back in November in 2020 I looked at my life and realized I had fallen off the wagon when it came to working out, and that this was having negative consequences.  I made a goal that beginning December 1^st, I would do something fitness related every single day, so I could become a healthier version of myself. 

This new fitness habit was going great.  My workouts had been awesome.  I was making so much progress.  Then a leg day crushed my spirits.  When I started working out that morning I felt really great.  I get halfway through the workout and my legs die on me.  I’m struggling.  I decrease my weight, I go without weights, and I eventually stop halfway into the workout because I just can’t do any more reps.  I’m upset with myself and feel like a total failure because I fell short of what I wanted to accomplish.  Then I see my whiteboard, where I make a tally mark for every day I do something fitness related.  I realize I have 25 tallies.  This tells me that for 25 days in a row, I’ve done something fitness related.  This tells me I have 25 days of positive progress.  Seeing that gives me perspective.  While I might have struggled during the workout, it was one more step toward being a better me.  While I might have struggled in that workout, screwing up didn’t make me a failure.  In the grand scheme of things, this bad workout was just a blip on a trajectory that was taking me into a positive direction.  I could either dwell on this one hiccup or I could say, “I’ve made amazing progress.  Let go of this.  Tomorrow is another day.”

You might be seeing the connections.  I don’t know about you.  I know that I over sensationalize my mistakes.  My small mistakes quickly turn into colossal failures.  When I do this, I lose sight of how much progress I’ve made and how often I’ve done things successfully.  I lose sight of how this is one small blip on a path that is leading me to something better.  I lose sight of the fact that the one stumble doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.  Do you ever feel this way?  If you do, it’s important to give yourself a little grace and pause a moment to put this situation into perspective.  I’m sure you’ll see things a little differently when you do.

The challenge: We are all striving to be our best, so let’s give ourselves grace if we fall a little short from time to time.  How are you keeping your shortcomings in perspective?  #moreselfgracein2021

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry