Consistency

Happy Monday! I am going to spend the first paragraph sharing the story of my weekend (for those of you who don’t care skip to next paragraph). I worked on this project, then babysat one of the kiddos I watch for the first time in two months! It made me realize how much changes in two months when you are three years old.  We had pancakes for dinner followed by a trailer backing up lesson (Eric is teaching me how to back up the camper/trailer we built -> view on Eric’s instagram).  Sunday morning, we worked, went grocery shopping, and biking 40 miles before coming home and pretty much spending the rest of the night like rocks glued to the recliner.  It was a good weekend and my body was reminded of that when I woke up sore this morning from the bike ride.

Which segues into the topic of consistency in your habits and behaviors.  Like I said, I was sore this morning from biking.  Monday is usually pull day (back and biceps) – halfway through our ride yesterday I shared with Eric that we might need to it switch to a push day (chest and triceps) because I knew I would be sore.  This morning, when I was right and Eric was sore too, we somehow came to the conclusion that it would be a rest day and we would just walk Django and not do a formal workout.  Well… that decision lasted until 11 AM for me when I decided I was antsy for some sort of workout and was going to do one by myself.  I think part of the reason my brain decided on this is because whether it’s yoga, biking, lifting, or walking – I challenge myself to get some sort of physical activity every day.  This habit is so ingrained that my day feels off if I try to mess with it.  Seriously – this morning I was so tired and dubbed it a ‘two cups of coffee day’ but then after my workout and giant salad for lunch, I felt so much better and didn’t need the second cup.

All this rambling about my workout routine and habits is I guess my long-winded way of urging the building of healthy habits that you do consistently.  Now I’m not going to be one of those people that says you have to do something every day or don’t do it at all.  But I do believe that there are things you should make a habit of doing consistently every day.  While there are also some behaviors that you can do every other day or once a week.  My tip is to figure out your goals – whether it is related to your health, career, personal development, or all of the above – find the goal(s) you want to achieve.  From there, figure out the habits that you can take advantage of to get you there.  Then ATTACK! Challenge yourself to complete your action items (aka habits) consistently.  And even more importantly, consistently get back up and keep going if you fall down.  A behavior may not become a habit right away and it may take some falling down and getting back up before you don’t second guess it anymore, but that tenacity is what will get you to your goals.

I know I came in here talking about my weekend and sharing my inability to not go a day without a workout.  But through my rambling and thought process, I believe that I brought us somewhere that had some meaningful insight so I hope you use it because I like to think I know what I’m saying at least a little bit.  Basically, find what behaviors you can implement in your life and make them a habit.  Set the standard of consistency and the expectation to consistently get back up if you fall down or veer off.

Bonus information: I decided to start publishing a series of articles to the kindle store on Amazon.  View my first official published article here!