Half way through January - time to redouble your efforts!

byGail-UK

3.1K followers

5 years ago

So it's half-way through January and here in the UK, we're experiencing some extreme chills - no, not just in the political shenanigans that we are seeing in the Houses of Parliament, (which are daily as source of both hilarity and despair), but with the weather too. And yet today, I saw that the blossoms on the cherry tree in the garden were out already!!

"Strange" I thought; "either the cherry tree has lost track of time, or it is really determined to blossom this year, in spite of the weather!"

"Well good for the cherry tree" - that's what I say. It's job is to blossom and that's exactly what it has decided it's going to do - a bit of snow and frost won't stop it.

The point of my post today is to inquire how everyone is doing with their New Year's resolutions, and to remind everyone that even if you managed to start something and stopped it again within a few days, this doesn't mean you have to give up altogether.

Much like the cherry tree, if you are determined enough - anything can happen.

And you can start to change your life again every day if you want to. Don't listen to others who say you can't......

I remember a time when I was at university, my friend and I decided to go on a diet. Neither of us were really keen on the idea but we decided that we would do it together to boost morale. So we planned a date, brought in some 'diet' foods and on one Monday morning, we started.

Of course, anyone who has ever started a diet knows that on the day you start, your stomach feels like your throat has been cut and even if you didn't usually have breakfast before, on the day you start your 'diet', you are already 'starving by 7am!'

So we had some healthy fresh fruit and low-fat yoghurt (this was the 80s) for breakfast, no bread because 'carbs were a no-no' and coffee without milk just for the hell of it. And a boiled egg as well, just for some protein.

Boy were we pleased with ourselves. We congratulated each other and patted ourselves metaphorically on the back many times. In fact, we were so pleased with ourselves that we decided to have a piece of cake for lunch to celebrate!!

Now obviously that was pretty much the end of the diet for that day, and you'll be pleased to know that I won't be publishing my "Tried and tested tips for dieters" book just yet.

But sure enough, come day 2, we put our 'celebrations' from day one behind us and tried again the next day, and the next and we both managed to lose a few pounds in weight (eventually!) and learned a few things about self-discipline and perseverance along the way too.

Which is really the gist of my post:

Whatever you've started this January, stick with it and don't give up.

Don't let the cold nights (Northern hemisphere) and dark days put you off. If you trip up one day, start back again the next.

Everyone has blips when trying to make changes to their life, and the first month of starting a new action is always the hardest. If you can get through the first 30 days, then you are closer to making it a 'habit', And habits are harder to break.

It's the old 'Robert the Bruce and the spider' message again:

If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try, try again!

So come of peeps - let's keep up the momentum on whatever changes you're trying to make - be it: write more posts, do more training, lose a few pounds or get some more sleep!

Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in the first place, and make every day a fresh start.

You can do it!!

Wishing you all lots of success.

Gail