One In and One Out

I’ve made so many promises to myself that I have not kept. There was every intention of keeping them, mind you, but the trouble was that I made them all at once. 

This is something I’ve been so fortunate to learn the hard way; but when it comes to radical personal transformation we’re playing a game of momentum. Initially the body can only handle so many massive shifts at one point in time. 

I’ll give you an example to illustrate my point. Let’s say I wanted to become the greatest version of myself – which is of course a worthwhile goal to pursue. And to do that I’ve identified that I need to stop all vices and study for 8 hours a day, work out 6x a week, read a book every day etc etc etc. 

At a certain point, usually early on, unless you’re superhuman there will probably be a slip up. You will inevitably realize that your initial expectations are not aligning with what you’re currently capable of sustaining in reality.  

This can breed discouragement and when you couple that with binging, you have a journey in the exact opposite direction that you wanted to be headed in. That is not sustainable. I’m currently re-experiencing this realization, and what I’ve set myself to do is gradually phase in the ‘good stuff’ and phase out what I know is no longer working for me. 

Keyword gradually. Rome was not built in a day, and neither were you. Try making one change at a time and sticking with that. Eventually, make the next one once that first change has stuck. One in and One out.