It’s been a while since I wrote one of these emails, so it seems apt I talk about restarting a habit after it’s been dropped.
The urgent often gets in the way of the important. Consciously or not we are always prioritising and de-prioritising things in our lives. And good intentions, and good habits can often fall by the wayside.
We get used to going to the Monday 6am class but hit snooze one day. The next week it gets a little easier to skip and before we know it’s not even something we consider doing.
Same with our evening mobility, gratitude journal, pre made lunches, or meditation practice. (Another thing I dropped the ball on the last few weeks!)
So then when we remember our forgotten habit we have an aversion to restarting. Some of it is embarrassment – we don’t want to be the guy who quit and is now coming back. Another is the expectations, that we have to get back to 100% of the original time commitment and 100% of the effort/results.
My advice – start small and exercise some self compassion. If your best friend or a close family member wanted to start the habit for the first time, you’d ease them into it. Treat yourself the same way.
**In order to walk the talk, I stopped after the last paragraph to meditate as I know how important it is to my mental clarity. I’d a whole host of resistance to it (I’ll do it later, I need to pee, I’m not focused right now, I need to finish this, Is there a better use of my time, etc.) But now I’ve done it, and that small bit of momentum will fuel me to do better and build the chain tomorrow.**
We all fall out of good habits, and all need to restart or reinvigorate something. Take the pressure off yourself to be perfect, but do pick a time to restart and commit to it.
Better yet, let me know what you’re going to recommit to and I’ll help you stay accountable 🙂