We’re probably amidst one of the biggest setbacks we’re ever likely to see in our lifetime...at least I hope we don’t have to go through anything like this again.
But individually we face setbacks all the time, whether you over indulged on the good stuff at that BBQ last weekend when you were supposed to be trying to be ‘good’, maybe you rolled your ankle when you were out on that run and now running is out of the question for a couple of weeks or perhaps you were due a promotion and/pay rise before all this happened and now that has been put on hold.
What do you do?? Sack it all off?
You were never that bothered anyway remember?
Or do you remind yourself why you were doing it in the first place?
Whatever the setback, there was a greater reason as to why you were doing it in the first place, what was it you were trying to achieve and why?
When we get this clear enough a setback just becomes an opportunity to come at things differently.
Let’s take your diet for example...the reason many of us watch what we eat is because we’re conscious of how eating too much of the good stuff actually makes us look and feel in the long term. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t over indulge from time to time. What it does mean however is that prior to, or following a moment of overindulgence we have to adjust our course in order to accommodate the excess calories that we might have enjoyed.
The very same goes for our exercise, whether you love a good 30min HIIT workout or much prefer just to get out for a walk each evening if/when an injury or niggle comes along do we just put exercise to one side for the time being?? No, we look for alternative ways in which to achieve the same results, switch to something more low impact, find movements that don’t aggravate the injury and remember why we started.
Among all of this comes that mental battle where you beat yourself up for succumbing to the temptation of an ice cold beer, that ice cream or that pizza or for not doing an proper warm up before your exercise session or trying that extra rep when your body was saying no.
At the end of the day setbacks are all part of the journey, the trick is to continue moving forward and not let whatever it is knock you off course. Use these impasses as an opportunity to review your end goal, look back at how far you have come, take stock of the lessons you’ve learned so far and adjust your course to make sure that you can keep going in the right direction.
What lessons have you taken from the setbacks you’ve had to date and look at where you are today.