Welcome to February 2020. My goal has always been to publish my blog post before the last day of each month. But I blinked and January 31st came and went and I failed to get this posted. So, here it is, my January post, coming to a screen near you, better late than never.
According to a 2018 Forbes article about New Year’s resolutions, fewer than 25% of people stay committed to their resolutions after 30 days, and only 8% actually accomplish them. Keeping commitments to ourself, breaking habits, creating new habits, we have all experienced how hard this can be. And the reasons, the excuses, there are so many!
meditate every day…woke up late for work…
eat healthy…oh that lovely box of See’s candy is calling my name…
drink 8 glasses of water…forgot to fill my water bottle, lost my water bottle…
exercise every day…so tired, stomach hurts, have to wake up early…
journal…no time, can’t find a pen, nothing to write about…
Return the call…reach out to the professional network… sign up for that course…read…clean the house…sleep 8 hours…floss… The list of what we can to do in service of our health, well-being, career, and other life goals sometimes feels endless. And we have many competing commitments, there are unexpected derailers and then there's the limit of the 24 hour day. So, despite our best efforts, sometimes we go slow, find ourself off course or just fail completely.
What can we to do when we hit that speed bump or fail our intentions? Here are a few choices to consider:
1/ take it off the list, quit and live with the consequences of not doing it
2/ fall into despair, self-criticism, judgement and guilt, maybe even self-loathing
3/ in the words of one of my favorite meditation teachers on the 10% Happier App, and the founder of the Insight Meditation Center, Joseph Goldstein:
I’m going with #3, what about you?