The Struggle To Stay On Track
I was flying through the air, I couldn’t believe it was happening but flying is cool. As I’m flying, I hear a siren in the background, were there police in the sky? The siren is getting louder, it’s really hard to ignore now.
Then it hits me, I can’t fly and that “siren” is my alarm clock, is it 5 am already? I get up and sit on the edge of the bed, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. Man, I’m still tired. I slept eight hours last night, a vast improvement over the three to four hours a night I used to get when I delivered bread but I’m still groggy.
Despite the eight hours of sleep, I wanted to get back in bed and snuggle under those covers next to my wife but I knew couldn’t. I’ve got work to do and a goal to hit before our family moves to Hawaii in April.
I set my alarm clock at 5 am so I could run five miles but everyday that alarm goes off, I want to cringe. I sit there in bed, trying to talk myself out of the run, telling myself that I’ve lost 135 pounds and I can take a day off here and there.
It’s super hard and those excuses seem pretty reasonable at 5 am, every morning the struggle returns. Every morning I have to remind myself why I do this, why this is important and so will you.
You may have set some big goals for yourself and your dream this year, if you did, get ready for that struggle. You may have experienced it before and let the struggle keep you from moving forward, that’s ok, this is a new year and a new opportunity to succeed.
Today I’d like to give you a few tips to prepare you for dealing with and beating the struggle to say on track:
Don’t take on too much
I’ve said it a few times already this year but less can be more. Too often in our society we wear being super busy as a badge of honor and we take on way too much thinking it makes us accomplish more.
Most of the time we hit that point when it all overwhelms us and we want to scream from all the pressure, I’ve been there. In addition to all of this, we hit that point when the struggle threatens to put all of this on hold.
Don’t wear society’s badge of honor by taking on way too much. Chasing that dream is going to be hard enough, don’t complicate things by taking on too much.
Breath through those frustrating moments
When the struggle gets hard and it seems like everything is going wrong, slow down and take a deep breath. Our family has been taking Tae Kwon Do and one technique we’re learning is how to use breathing.
In that moment we tend to react when we should be stepping back. Your brain will tell you to do this or that, instead step back, take a deep breath and center your mind and body. If it takes ten minutes, use them to clam down and realize it’s going to be ok.
Focus on your why
Why are you facing this struggle? It’s because you’ve refused to settle for good enough and decided to make your dream your reality. Remember your why, that big dream, that big change, that incredible life that’s at the end of that finish line.
When you’re dealing with the struggle, you have to take your eyes off the struggle and focus on your why. It can be the difference between success and failure.
Work on one thing at a time
This takes us back to point #1 but multi-tasking rarely works. I don’t know about you but to often I try too many things at once and end up having many unfinished tasks. I’ve beat you’ve experienced a little of this.
We want to live our dream right now and to get there we think that doing a bunch of things at once will speed up that process. The best way to move forward is by focusing on what’s important right now.
What tasks do you need to do right now that will help you make the most progress? Figure that out and complete that task. After that, what’s the next most important task? Do that and move forward.
There are bound to be a few things that you’ll work on at the same time, like things on your website but in general, work on one thing at a time.
If you face the struggle or are going through it right now, don’t worry, you’ll get through it. Just don’t let the struggle keep you from taking those actions that will get you to your ultimate goal.
What struggles are you facing right now?
