How to be flexible when pursuing our goals

It’s day five of the new year. I am always amazed by how quickly ‘real life’ can feel like it can get in the way of our new intentions. I’m already feeling a bit heavier and a tiny bit more drained. That’s why its even more important to remind ourselves of why we want to persist in making these changes in our lives. This is the penultimate blog in the series and focuses on flexibility. 

Don’t worry about the piste or the wagon: be flexible

This is a big one.

Many of us like to give ourselves a hard time when we don’t measure up to our imagined ideal. That’s why we hate new years resolutions; they make us feel like we’re inadequate.  Any of the following can happen:

•  we realise we don’t want to do it any more;
•  the sacrifice is too great;
• we’ve let it slide for days, weeks or months;
• it wasn’t what we expected.

And then we feel pretty crap, so crap in fact that we ditch the resolution entirely and want to curl up in a hole. A fixed mindset in relation to goals will never serve us. We can change them at any time!

You realised that the gym isn’t where you can enjoy exercise? Start swimming instead. You didn’t manage to blog every day? Why not try weekly, fortnightly or video blogs? Our language gives it away because we ‘fall of the wagon’ or go ‘off piste’.

But as a very wise teacher of mine once said “there is no piste”. Really. As I often tell my clients (and myself), we will accomplish far less if we dwell on what we haven’t done or our fall from the imagined wagon. Far better to see it as a change of course or direction that can serve you better.

There is no piste other than in your mind and the joy of creating a happier life is that you get too choose.

Tune in for tomorrow’s final instalment.