In my 15 years of Nerd Fitness, there’s one thing I’ve heard more than anything else.
We hear it from every coaching client within two weeks of starting with us too:
“I’m sorry things are so busy this week, but next week things
should get back to normal.”
Whenever there is a set back of any kind, there’s an apology with an expectation that things “will get back to normal” soon.
We all say it.
Every one of us.
Comically, I stumbled across this post on Threads:
We’re all convinced that next week things get back to normal.
Of course next week, something else will happen:
A kid will get sick.
Work will suck.
Our pipes will freeze.
Normal is NOT “my perfect schedule where everything works out.”
That’s not normal!
Normal is CHAOS, especially if you’re a parent, dealing with a chronic health issue or taking care of ailing parents.
Here’s my proposed solution:
Instead of beating ourselves up when life happens, or waiting until the stars align for us to make progress, we can start with acceptance: “My life is a hot mess, and that’s totally normal.”
Having a plan is great, but preparing for things to go sideways is equally important.
Once we accept we live in a chaos tornado, we can then get to work on what to do about it.
We can’t foist all our hopes and dreams upon Future Us:
We need to find ways to make progress amidst the chaos.
Which means we need to accept that we can’t do it all. We need to accept that we can’t get there quickly. We need to accept that life will happen.
Once we accept that chaos is normal, we can get to work on making progress now:
- A half-assed workout today is 10x better than a full workout executed “next week when things slow down a bit” because next week something else will happen!
- Writing one page of a novel each afternoon is better than “taking next week to really write all day every day” because that will never happen.
- Adding some extra fruits and vegetables to one meal today is better than the ‘perfect diet’ that you’re going to start next week. Let’s stop fooling ourselves!
Acceptance of reality is the first step towards progress.
Here are two questions for you to consider today:
What if THIS – right now – is your “normal”?
If you HAVE to make progress, what would you do differently?
-Steve
