Despite the relative silence on the blog lately,Ā Iām not dead!š I was just tired a few weeks ago from working on too many projects, and didnāt feel like writing that weekās postā¦
Or the next weekāsā¦
Orā¦
You get the idea.
This kind of thing has happened to all of us. We start going to the gym regularly, or getting into some other good, healthy habit, and then life happens.
Thatās fine.
Michelle Akin was living though something similar lately, and in her newsletter she correctly pointed out something that we often forget:Ā weāre not robots. š¤
Itās normal to mess up and not be 100% consistent, and we shouldnāt beat ourselves up for it.
That being said,Ā itās by no means a free pass to drop the ball.
Itās the strangest thing, but whenever we feel like weāve messed up in some way, messing up a bit more just doesnāt seem like such a big deal.
Letās say youāre setting out to eat healthier, and youāre tempted by the exquisite Quebecois delicacy known asĀ poutine. Youāve been eating lean and sticking to your goal perfectly for several days, but you cave even though your cheat day is still some ways away (who wouldnāt amirite?)
Your level of guilt towards your goal might be something likeĀ an 8 out of 10Ā (it was a really good poutine!)
Then maybe your awesome co-worker brings in homemade butter tartsā¦Ā Tons of them.
You obviously canāt help yourself, because letās be real here, butter tarts are amazing.Ā 5/10Ā for guilt since youād broken your streak anyway.
And then you get home to find out that your partner has made a cheesecake on their day off.
Youāre down to maybeĀ 2 or 3 on 10Ā for guilt towards your goal? I mean, whatās a slice of cheesecake when youāve already had a poutine and a few too many butter tarts?
While Iām in no way advocating for you to beat yourself up over your mistakes, we all do it to some extent so thereās no point in pretending it doesnāt happen
Poutine, some butter tarts, or some cheesecake will individually have similar negative effects on oneās healthy eating goals, but depending on the context they present themselves in, our perception of them can change greatly. The human cognitive bias known as theĀ contrast effectĀ is at work here, and the only thing you can really do to offset it is to try to be aware of it.
After missing a weekās blog post it feels like less of a big deal to miss the next, and the same can be said of all of my projects that require consistency.
And since writing the above text, I literally missed another month!Ā Guilt level: minimal. Momentum: lost.
Itās kind of a shame thoughā¦
Momentum is such a magical thing. Itās the compound interest on your efforts, and it makes all your hard work seem so much more worthwhile.
Letās get it back š