How Your Biggest Excuses Can Help You
Just Put Your Shorts On
By chris danilo on May 29, 2017 05:27 am
There are some strange things that happen when you try to change yourself. And I’m not talking about the slow rate of progress or the big payoff–I’m talking about the disappointments, the injuries, then setbacks and the feelings of pain, uncertainty, and frustration. Of course, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted or written any content in about 4 or 5 weeks. It’s not because I was taking an intentional rest or a deliberate retreat. I fell off the horse. I just stopped writing. But that doesn’t matter. You know what I’m going to say next, right? It’s not the incremental success that actually improves us. It’s the ability to get back in the saddle with confidence that you are who you say you are. It’s the relentless mindset that makes us travel in the direction of our dreams. We often over estimate what we can accomplish in a year, but massively underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years. In the end, it’s the decadal time-scale that really matters–not the fact that we fell off the horse a few times. Yet, this is often the reason we quit. It’s just so easy to forget about the long-game because days will always seem longer than years when we’re in the middle of a workout, a breakup, or a career setback. Having a relentless mindset means zooming out, looking at the big picture, and jumping back in the game anyway. Having a relentless mindset means accepting the embarrassment of falling down in front of others and getting back up anyway. Having a relentless mindset doesn’t mean we’re immune to pain, frustration or self-doublt, it means we’re committed to the process of moving forward despite these adversities. 2 MINUTE ACTION: What’s something you quit or stopped doing recently? Writing? Learning a new language? Practicing an instrument? What’s something you can do in 2 minutes to get you back in the game? How about writing a 5 sentence blog post? How about listening to a song or podcast in another language? How about picking up the guitar or sitting down at the piano and playing along with 1 song on the radio? The funny thing about resilience is that the action itself isn’t the hard part. It’s not running or lifting weights at the gym that’s hard–it’s putting your shorts on. I bet, once you put your shorts on and get back in the game, you’ll surprise yourself how quickly you’ll pick up where you left off.
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