What is your method of escape?

As we begin to approach the middle of the 1st quarter of this year, is the work necessary to stay true to this year’s intentions becoming more natural? I won’t say easier, let’s say a smoother process than before?  A new routine beginning to feel good and the level of personal productivity satisfactorily falling into place yet?

for some, the answer will be a resounding yes and others will may still be struggling with the commitment, courage and consistency.  No worries, keep at it however I invite you to pause and think about where you are escaping?

Escaping meaning, when you allow yourself to become distracted. Are you purchasing items you don’t really need? Are you socializing beyond your budget?  Has your drinking or food intake increased as a way of coping?  Sometimes we sabotage our own efforts and make all sorts of excuses.  When things are going great it’s easy to go with the flow; however what about those moments when doubt and frustration pay us a visit?  Moments when your workouts need to shift because you’ve a plateau and stopped seeing results.  Or when the routine you thought was going to make you more productive becomes mundane and boring.

Before we go attacking ourselves or defending our behavior let’s look at when possibly have we done this before.  When we were going along doing well and then just gradually began to fall off.  Pause for a moment there and figure out what happened.  Why did we lose focus? Did more life responsibility kick in? Did we get a case of the FOMO (Fear of missing out)? Did we set unrealistic expectations on how soon we should be seeing results from our efforts?

Change isn’t easy and we have to be prepared to sit with the not so good feeling moments along with the moments of elation and joy.  Both are necessary when they show up because they provide a nice gauge for our growth and progress.  However, if we escape instead of confronting the challenging moment we are creating weak spots in our foundation of intentions. They may not show up now but when we need things to hold together they may begin to sink and fall apart.

So be gentle with yourself should you realize that you’ve been escaping from the work you stated that you would do to manifest your intentions.

We all need to have a plan for those times when we fall prey to boredom, loneliness, anxious or depressed.  Something that we can do or somewhere we can go to feel the emotion and then release it and get back to working on our goals. If we don’t have anything in place we will escape and then convince ourselves it’s okay until those moments pile up and then we realize that we’ve all but stopped committing to our goals and intentions.

Remember why you began in the first place. That’s always a good start.  From there reel yourself back into the fold of things and get back on track. We still have a little over a month to go before the 1st quarter of the year is over.

What are your 1st quarter goals? Are you on target to make them?