Hello, my amazing people. Your girl has been out of commission for a few days due to some health issues, but you didn’t think I’d miss out on our weekly chats, did you?
I thought it would be very relatable and timely to talk about what progress looks like. Not the dreamy, planned till the millisecond kind, but the one that gives you a harsh reality check kind.
Let’s look at a graphic for more clarity.
Yes, that beautifully twisted, doodled mess of a line, that’s us.
And you need to accept that, because that’s a really big part of why most people fail at keeping promises to themselves. I don’t know about you, but that linear, straight line looks so good to me. Wouldn’t it be convenient? So, no wonder life won’t let us have it.
If you go into something thinking that you’re supposed to wake up every day and get every last thing done on your checklist exactly like you planned, you are going to wreck your self-esteem and self-confidence. Because you look around social media these days with viral, rich, successful people talking about their morning routines, night routines, and every-hour-in between routines, and think that that’s actually a representation of their day-to-day lives. So, if they can do it, why can’t I? Is it because I’m incapable of it? Yeah, I must be.
NO.
Nobody in this world can plan every single day of their life. What you see people do, that’s like 80% of their days (if we’re talking about someone who’s like monster level disciplined and lives in isolation), the rest is them making the most of the hand they have been dealt. And that’s where true character is actually built and tested.
So, does that mean I shouldn’t work on a routine at all?
Absolutely not. You should definitely have a routine. Routines are what help you get back into the groove when you’ve had a few bad days. They set the tone for your body, especially morning routines. But you need to make sure that your routines are sustainable and don’t actually take away time and energy from your actual work. But that’s a topic for another day.
So, yes have a routine and plan your day, just don’t expect things to smoothly fall into place. You need to know that going into this day, you will have to fight really hard to get your checklist done, and you might not always succeed because you can’t control what life decides to throw at you, but you need to know at the end of the day that you gave it your all. That’s how you measure progress and short-term success.
For example, my dreamy plan with this newsletter is sitting every week on my desk peacefully from 8 AM – 11 AM on a sunny Sunday morning, typing non-stop as the words just flow into my brain. And yet here I am, sitting on my dining table, in the middle of the living room with my family bustling about, on a Monday morning at 11 AM, hungry for breakfast and having to switch back and forth between my writing and researching because I couldn’t have the content researched beforehand. And that’s okay. Because I am here. I showed up. It isn’t perfect, but it is going to happen. If I promised you and myself a weekly newsletter, it will happen. It won’t be according to plan every time, but it will happen. And that’s what I need you to understand. Appreciate yourself for still showing up even after life threw its worst hand at you at the absolute worst time. The goal is to get things done, not to get them done according to plan.
Your plan might be to finish the marathon by gracefully running up to the finish line, but don’t give up if you know that can’t be anymore, crawl to the finish line if you have to, because that’s what matters: finishing that marathon. Not if you achieved how you’d planned you finish it.
A ten-minute work out is better than not working out at all because an important meeting came up and you can no longer do the one-hour leg session. You do what you can. You do your best. And there is no running from that, because you can fake it with everyone, but not yourself. You are accountable to yourself. You know that you could have done better, just like you know inside that you did you best.
At the end, it’s all about what you want from life.
So, all this to say, it won’t be perfect, actually it’ll be as messy as it can get, but it’ll be worth it in the end so don’t give up. It’s meant for you because you said so. End of discussion.
Let’s get to work.
I’ll see you again next week.