I got a fantastic email the other day from one of my Fall Fat Loss Fast Track members. After setting a goal and having a couple good days, she struggled. She didn’t do the work. She had a “bad day”.
On this bad day, she emailed me.
I know one of my biggest issues is eating (and eating too much) when I’m not hungry. I’ve been working on tackling this for years without much success.
I’ve decided my 30-day goal should be around this issue. I want to eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m satisfied.
Yesterday was great. Today, not so much. I ate well beyond satiety at dinner.
Did I choose the wrong goal? As you say, was my motivation exceeding my skill set? Am I trying to hit this goal every single day or is 80% consistency good enough?
Am I overthinking it because I’ve already stumbled?
I TOTALLY relate to this line of thinking. You get motivated, set a goal, crush the day and then pretty soon…not so much.
How you respond at this point is EVERYTHING. You can tell yourself it’s too much, it’s too hard and you can’t do it. Or, you can change your perspective.
The choices you make on & following your bad days will determine your success & your ability to reach your goals.
Let’s say you decided you wanted to be a great basketball player and you were going to start by improving your free throws. Every day you’re going to practice.
The first day goes your way. You’re sinking all your shots and it feels amazing. You’re encouraged. You feel hopeful.
The next day, you’re off. You’re missing more shots than you’re making. You get frustrated.
Welcome to PRACTICE, the path to improvement. This is what it looks like, folks. This is when it matters most that you keep going.
Here’s the thing: when you have that off day on the court, you learn from it. Is my head in the game? Am I distracted? Is my form off? Are my muscles tired? Am I using different equipment I need to adjust to?
Struggle is where we learn. It’s where our practice improves, it’s how we get better.
The mere decision to create a goal isn’t enough. You can’t expect flawless execution just because you’ve decided on it.
Progress requires practice.
Practice in and of itself is imperfect.
You grow when you evaluate your imperfect practice and learn from it:
- What am I doing right?
- What am I doing that could be improved?
- What’s different from yesterday when things were going so much better?
- What can I do differently?
And then, most importantly: KEEP TRYING.
Now, the need for practice isn’t license to not try your best. In fact, the value of your practice depends entirely on your effort.
Every day do your best. Accept that “your best” will often look different from day to day.
Don’t ignore the opportunity in your struggles. There are nuggets of gold in those challenges that, when you learn from them, dramatically accelerate your rate of progress.
So you had a day that wasn’t what you had hoped. Was it better than you’ve done in the past? If so, that’s progress! Congrats! Keep at it!
And even if it’s not, are you practicing? Are you learning? Are you bringing awareness to how it makes you feel so maybe next time overeating doesn’t sound like such a great idea?
So to my sweet Fat Loss Fast Track friend – no, you didn’t set the wrong goal. Welcome to practice, the path to your goals. This is what it looks like. Learn to love it.