How Do We Stop Stopping?
Keeping the things that add to our lives
We know what improves our lives. We know what makes us happy and we know we feel miserable guilt when we don’t do those things. Still, we don’t do them. Or, we do and then we stop.
We are prone to look at the problem of inconsistency as a symptom of why we are inadequate, frustrated, or ultimately not enough. Every time we drop a healthy habit we throw our arms up and sigh.
Stopping is not a symptom of why we suck, it is an example of how we are human. Whatever it is: days of writing, consistent exercise, eating healthy, missing a day isn’t the problem. The problem is how we react to missing that day.
Designing habits, routines, schedules, and plans for our perfect lives is a positive practice but if we allow those plans to become a prison, it is having the opposite of its intended impact.
Our judgments upon ourselves are our warden. Each time we miss a deadline, we dwell. If we forget an appointment, we curse ourselves. Fall short of a goal and we judge ourselves.
The punishments hurt more than the mistake.
I’m still punishing myself for the work I didn’t put into being a better basketball player in high school. I had great skills and a strong foundation. I could have been great, but I was too lazy. The same laziness is showing up in my life today and holding me back.
But, wait. That was fourteen years ago. The regrets are there and real, but dwelling on them is the fastest way to creating new regrets.
Stop letting yesterday throw today off track. You didn’t get to the gym, so go now. You didn’t eat well, make your next meal the best meal. When you don’t publish that article on time, finish it anyway, publish now.
The idea is not to stop stopping. The stop isn’t what is killing us. The pain comes when we don’t start again. When you restart fast enough, it will be as if you never stopped.
