Breaking the Cycle of "One Day"
The cycle of "One Day" is the reason I am not at my goal weight, not at the skill level, not at my fill-in-the-blank.
One day I will go to the gym, one day I will get my degree, one day I will change to that career track.
How do we break this cycle of "One Day". Rather than focusing on the future efforts WE BELIEVE are going to happen, how do we shift into working at the moment to get our goals and our vision for our life accomplished?
So let us break down a few elements that I think can go into breaking the cycle of "One Day". There is a lot to this, but I just wanted to jot down some of the things that I have found most helpful in my own journey...
Step One - Gaining Some Perspective
I find that so much about understanding life is about knowing where you stand inside of it. Gaining a perspective will elevate you to a better place.
The biggest perspective change I had was with death 💀. I know this can be a dreary and not a great convo. We are all adults here striving to change our lives, so let us talk about it.
We like to think that time is like money, that we get more of it every day.
The reality is, we are withdrawing from our bank account on day 1. Every single day we are just given an allowance. As the bank account gets smaller.
To top it all off, we do not know how much money is in there. We could have 80 years, we could have 40 years. It's a hidden number.
When I finally realized this / accepted it. I gained a lot of perspective. I do not want to get to the end of my life to find out that I spent it on all of the wrong things.
Accepting that we have a limited supply of time, I hope will fill you with a desire/sense of urgency to make your "One Day" Goals, "Today" goals. 🎯
Step Two - Make the Decision BEFORE the moment
So often we make decisions in the MOMENT rather than making decisions ahead of time. I find that we make BETTER decisions ahead of time because we are not going to "cave" or "change our minds".
Let's workshop the idea a little bit 🔨
Say I am going shopping and I have a list of items, most of these are healthy items because I am wanting to clean up my diet. 🍓🥑🥗
When I get to the store though, you know I will walk by the candy, ice cream, and other items that were not put on my list. The chance of me caving you ask...100% 😬
So rather than waiting to make the decisions when I get to the store and struggling with that decision. Make the decision BEFORE.
When I am driving there, I would tell myself, "I am going to buy what is on my list" throw in a WHY too 😊. "I am going to buy what is on my list, to better my health for me and my family".
These ideas will reinforce your efforts, allowing you to free up your mind and be able to make the right decisions because shoot...you already did 😅
Step Three - Get Accountable
I have talked about accountability a lot on my blog. Having a person that knows your goals and will ask you about them spurs you to accomplish them.
If you are curious more about this idea of accountability, take a look at my other post here
Step Four - Replace Distractions
I am all for Mental Health and making sure you unwind, but here are some things I am actively working on to replace.
Distraction | Replacement |
Social Media | Uninstalled all except LinkedIn from my phone |
TV Shows, Movies | Watching Youtube Videos on topics that better myself |
Substituting our distractions with other things that improve our life I have found to aid me in motivating me to change what I spend my time on.
The biggest change I made by far was switching all of my social media to LinkedIn. I find that there is a community of people building, inspiring, growing, and supporting others. Joining that during my "downtime" really helped me to start pushing myself.
Final Thought - Get a Community
People make all of the difference in our life. From what we do or do not do. To what we believe we can or can not accomplish.
Find a community of people that inspire you, challenge you, elevate you. Then make sure you be that to someone else one day 😊
The "One Day" cycle is a dangerous lie that we tell ourselves. It's a lie that we can wake up from 10 years later and realize we never really did anything that we really wanted to.
So start today, you might fail, give yourself grace, and get started that day again!
In Bob Goff's book, Dream Big, He writes that the previous version of you was not strong enough to accomplish your goals, but the current one might be.
So start Beginning to Begin Today!