Reframe It

“Well, I’ve already failed, so why bother trying.”

I wanted to follow up a little bit about my post last week about being disciplined.

As of the 11th day of the year, I cannot say I’ve read and written every single day. I’ve missed 2 days of writing, and 1 day of reading.

At first, the guilt started to take over. The ‘all or nothing’ thinking. The I-can’t-reach-my-goal-of-everyday-now-so-just-stop.

And I did stop, but only to reframe my thinking.

I’ve read and written more in the 11 days of January than I had in all of November and December combined. (And many of the months preceding those as well).

That’s definitely progress. And success.

Discipline is important. If I say I’m going to do the things every day, it’s important that I do so. I have goals I want to achieve and I’m only going to achieve them by being disciplined about them.

But so is perspective. On the days I didn’t read or write, I was spending time with family; I was getting extra sleep in the morning to better survive the day; I was moving my body; I was doing my nails and enjoying a tv show. These are also important.

And maybe try this - I’m a list lover, but instead of titling my list “TO DO” for the weekend and adding ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ to it, I titled it:

Things that I know would make me feel GOOD if I accomplished them this weekend

When I was able to fill in that heart (no checkboxes here) Friday night for finishing my reread of A Court of Silver Flames, I most certainly felt good.

So, if it’s already January 11th, and you feel you are falling behind on your goals, reframe how far you’ve come. Reframe why you want to accomplish the goal. Likely, whatever you have done these past 11 days is more than you did before. Wasn’t that the whole point of the goal in the first place?