My first session with a new client sets the tone for their personalized program. We set some goals and talk through a few small changes they can make to start moving towards a healthier life.
They leave the session ready to overhaul their habits, their eyes on the prize of a whole food diet, dramatic weight loss, and spiritual fulfillment. These are fantastic and achievable goals!
But many clients come back for their next session and guiltily tell me they “failed.” They list off how they ate junk food, drank too much coffee, didn’t go to the gym…
Photo credit: LifeSuperCharger
That’s not true, however. You have not failed, you have simply been given an opportunity to learn something about yourself.
What was your goal? To eat better? To exercise more? Those are admirable goals. To achieve those goals you need more than willpower, you need to dig deeper.
What keeps you from succeeding in the first place?
People don’t overeat due to lack of willpower, they overeat due to things like stress and lack of emotional support. The solution isn’t simply to eat less, the solution is to address the real cause of the overeating. That could mean expanding your self-care, getting more sleep, or dealing with a buried emotion.
Instead of judging yourself, check in with your body. What’s really preventing you from making those changes? What would it look like to move forward?
So when you start to measure yourself against impossible standards and timelines, change your tune. Haven’t accomplished your goal? No.
You haven’t accomplished your goal — yet.
What is the wall between you and that goal? What will it take to move past it?
“If you lose today, win tomorrow. In this never-ending spirit of challenge is the heart of a victor.”
-Daisaku Ikeda
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What a great message. Inspiring to look at the “failures” as steps toward success. We beat ourselves up for so many unnecessary reasons. It’s better to cheer ourselves on than to bring ourselves down!