Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with the beginning of the year?
The New Year equals a fresh start. A blank page. A clean slate.
Then the pressure’s on to make some changes and make progress with your goals. By the end of January there are a whole lot of people who have become incredibly discouraged and given up on the things they wanted to do that year.
This has led to a growing trend of less people even setting New Year’s Resolutions. Less than 30% of Americans even started with a hopeful goal. And a shocking 8% will feel like they have accomplished them by the end of the year.
I felt this personally when my goal of running a marathon started on shaky ground in the last week or so. After much training and pushing my body harder than I ever have, I started experiencing a lot of pain during my long runs. It was discouraging and I started to question my belief that I could even finish my goal.
Then I read that running this long of a distance was 90% mental. I may need to adjust my expectations and baby my knee for the remainder of my training, but most likely I can accomplish what I set out to do. I don’t plan on doing that at the expense of my body, and I don’t recommend that to anyone else, but it made me realize something.
We question our abilities a lot. And we make tons of excuses why we can’t do something.
I just finished listening to my pastor, Andy Stanely, finish a series of this very same topic called “Paper Walls”. In his sermon, he talks about this very same topic. The art of excuses and how it leads us to life of “less than”.
He mentions that there is a fine line between reasons and excuses. We can all have very reasonable reactions to challenges and discomforts in our lives. We are the first and most relenting people to lie to ourselves and believe the untruths.
Constantly searching for the justification of “I can’t” “I won’t” or “I don’t” do something.
It’s amazing how many roadblocks we put in our own way and how much energy we spend hiding behind these “paper walls” that we, ourselves, have created.
I tell my clients all the time that the biggest indicator of our ability to succeed is in how often we get up after making a mistake or losing our footing. We are going to fail at times. Things are not going to go perfectly after we set our New Year’s resolutions and start going down the track to our ideal future.
We have to lean into the hard and accept that things are not always going to go as planned. It’s OK. That dosen’t mean we give up and throw in the towel. We still have work to do. We still need to show up.
I pray this message finds anyone feeling discouraged not even 30 days into the New Year. I hope it reminds you – that you don’t have to be perfect. You may not get there exactly the way you planned it, but you can still get there.
Always cheering on your dreams and praying for your health & happiness, friends.
x, Courtney
