There are some days when all goes smoothly. All goes “according to plan”; most of all your enthusiasm, your drive for action. And then it seems, like you are off to a great start, and nothing along the way can stop you.
And maybe indeed nothing may stop you, but what if it’s not the obstacle that is going to represent the problem, but rather the drive itself; the enthusiasm, the passion, the motive, the craving for success and action?
And the worst thing is when such a thing happens out of nowhere, while in the midst of our peak, right when things were finally going well.
All of the sudden our drive for action and success comes to a plateau, and we are not only puzzled about what next, but what provoked this at the first place.
It’s all relative
I know that right now I cannot sound more cliché than this, but all is really relative. We are doing well one second, and the next things may change.
It can be a change in mood, the body may just have enough from all the hectic life, we can have some factors related to our self-improvement slightly changed.
And this is normal, at least that’s the way I see it. The body needs refresh, our mind needs refresh. We cannot be more productive as we cannot be more successful all of the time.
And bad days are exactly that – a slight disruption in our routine, our improvement.
What should we do in order to keep the progress up?
As our success in any segment of life is due to discipline and an act of habit, we are better off keeping that just as it is. So what is the problem here?
Well, you see, as I mentioned millions of times before, we are creatures of comfort. That in turn only makes us more prone to status quo, which if established again is self-preserving, and very hard to disrupt.
That’s why we can see people who are very successful going around the clock trying to “stay in the game”, to “keep things moving”.
It seems that if they were to stop even for a second that the status quo mindset is very likely to reestablish again, because the mind sees an opportunity to bring things back in the comfort zone again.
And this happens no matter how disciplined we are, no matter how much we have progressed in the process of setting habits.
That’s why discipline is only a trait witnessed in continuity, which must be constantly nurtured, should we strive for success.
And how to achieve just that?
Bearing all of this in mind, logic dictates that we should not allow a gap in the circle. Only a perpetual action is what makes discipline stay where it is.
In practice, this translates into not allowing ourselves to get lazy. Achieving this is a different story though.
You can read about what to do when having a bad day, or how to stop procrastinating, but bottom line is – you must slightly force yourself to act.
And the volume of the action is not the measure by itself, but it rather represents a change in mindset, immediately provoked by a change in behavior.
You see, the body will try to fight back along with the subconscious part of our mind, and make you step back from action, from improvement.
And just by immediately changing your response, by answering with action, you will break that pattern of thought before it even takes place.
And the volume of the action, just like I said before, is not important at all. It can just be something symbolic as walking your dog, forcing yourself to write that post, doing those crunches…
The thing is it must be forced. If you feel like not doing it, then that’s the thing you must do.
Choose small actions, because that way it will be easier for you. In future this kind of behavior will be more embedded into your habit, so you will be able to start even more complex actions just by forcing yourself to do them.
Here is an example
Today, I was feeling like I don’t wanna do a thing. Yet, knowing this, I got outside for a walk, and then came back to open my laptop and write this post.
At first I didn’t felt like doing it, but the second I started things changed. Now imagine if I didn’t force myself to act.
The drive for comfort would have consumed me, and not only that this day would have passed without me fighting to stay out of my comfort zone, but tomorrow may be even harder.
Therefore, I acted instantly, and disrupted the pattern forming.
Now I feel “back in the game” even thinking about going for a run in the evening after all my work gets done. I will maybe squeeze a workout in there somewhere too.
Bottom line is
Force yourself just as the mind is forcing you to take rest, quit, abandon the routine. The thing you do doesn’t need to be very complex, or demanding, because it’s the intention and the disruption that you create in the mindset that is shaping differently from what you would like.
This will in time become one of your most important tools in the fight against procrastination, nostalgia for the comfort zone, and having an overall bad day.