Don’t give up, recommit

‘Forgive yourself each night, and recommit every morning’ – Esse Dagogo

Self-discipline isn’t something we’re born with. We have to teach ourselves and it takes time and effort. We won’t always be successful at everything we do but, if we don’t try, we’ll never get there! Remember, no one ever reached the top of the mountain without not only taking the first step, but also doing a lot of shorter climbs beforehand to prepare! We need to accept that we won’t always achieve something the first time we try, but instead of giving up – we can recommit.

We can recommit as many times as we need. No matter what our goal is, whether it’s about our health, our mental and emotional well-being, a practical thing or our dreams, we can choose to start again at any point.

My blog is all about the journey; the journey to happiness, health and wellbeing. For each thing we talk about there is a tiny tweak we can work on that helps us achieve those things. The whole point of the tweaks being tiny is because, with the best will in the world, making major changes takes time, dedication and commitment which isn’t always easy to find. But however small the tweak, sometimes we don’t keep it up. It takes time for something to become a habit and even if we have every intention to keep whatever it is going, we don’t always achieve it. Is that failure?

I’d love to tell you that I do every tiny tweak on a daily basis but I don’t. I’m only human! I’d love to say that six months after starting my blog, I am achieving everything I wanted to but I can’t. Does that make it a failure? Does that mean that writing this blog is pointless? I don’t think so!

Failure is just thoughts that bring us down. an illusion, and the idea that we can’t start again will do nothing but keep us in a mindset where we feel low, dispirited or sad.

In a previous post we talked about failure being good for us. If you missed it or want to remind yourself, you can read it here: https://wordpress.com/post/happyhealthymeajourney.com/388

So failure can be good for us but this post isn’t about failure. It’s about recommiting. Accepting that we are only human and sometimes the things we plan to do, don’t happen. Sometimes life gets in the way, maybe we’re just too busy or overloaded, maybe our self-discipline let us down and we got bored or distracted. The reason doesn’t matter, but what does matter is that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again! Setbacks are always going to happen, that’s normal, but make sure you don’t use them as an excuse to give up.

The first thing to do is to make your tiny tweaks just that, tiny. They need to be realistic and small enough that you can do them regularly without a huge effort. For example, saying something positive to yourself every time you look in the mirror or standing on one leg while you wait for the kettle to boil. They are simple, quick and you can do them daily, maybe even several times each day. Linking them to something you already do gives you a better chance of sticking to them.

Secondly, make sure you talk to yourself positively. If you tell yourself that something isn’t going to work, guess what? It won’t! Set out with the right attitude. Acknowledge how the tiny tweak you’ve chosen is helping towards your overall goal. Congratulate yourself for doing it. Just because there isn’t any measurable progress yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t working! You’re aiming for progress, not perfection!

Finally, just do it! Recommit right now to whatever it is you want to achieve. Pick your overall goal and identify your tiny tweak. Don’t wait for New Year’s Eve to make a resolution or until after the weekend or when you feel more enthusiastic. You can start again at any time, at any minute and this one feels perfect!

Until next time xx

If you enjoyed this post. please like it and let me know in the comments. Have you adopted any tiny tweaks yet? Are they making a difference?