What are you doing with the second half of 2020? 

Let me just start by saying that I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW! I say this because I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to telling myself stories and believing my own bullshit. Maybe this (or a similar version) is your story…

“Ugh…I was doing so well. I was in a nice routine of packing my food and clothes for the gym, heading straight there after work and feeling great! I was starting to see some results and it was motivating for me to keep going. I wanted more of it. I was on a roll! Then, BOOM! Covid19…the bomb that just hit in the middle of my road to the new me in 2020!”

Yep.  This is the case with a lot of you.  Here is my question. 

 What are you going to do about it? 

You have two options.  

#1 Do nothing

#2 Do something 

That’s it.  There is no reason for you to use more words than this.  All the wordy and feely crap you are telling yourself is useless. I know it makes you feel better about things you are not doing, but it really is useless. Again, I’m speaking from experience. We tend to get wrapped up in the victim mentality of what has happened and forget that we do actually have control over how we handle adversity.  Feelings and the drama surrounding them are hard to overcome, but they don’t define you or mask the cold hard truth that nothing changes without change.  Change is painful. Feel me? I’m not trying to be harsh, but we are all grown ass adults and I believe we deserve to be talked to in a way that is real about what it takes to make positive changes in our lives.  

Thinking about it = doing nothing  

Talking about it = doing nothing  

Wishing it was different = doing nothing  

Joining a gym (only joining but not actually going) = doing nothing

Blaming kids/spouse/job/schedule/ body part that hurts = doing nothing

Doing something…

TAKE ACTION! 

Action of some kind is required to change.   Change requires that you stop some things that are not conducive to creating your desired state of health. 

 STOP TALKING!  Unless you are an excellent motivational self-talker, talking to yourself can be destructive on so many levels. The majority of us are pretty critical of ourselves.  There are things we say to ourselves that we would never say to a friend.  If you cannot say nice things to yourself, you need to break up with her/him for a bit until you have can build a better relationship.  Is this possible?  YES.  When you really want to achieve something bad enough, and it is truly a priority, you will give in to the process.  Did you know that you are able to just do a thing without having an hour conversation with yourself about it?  It’s true.  You just put one freaking foot in front of the other, do the next thing, and do that again.  You don’t think about it or talk about it.  You just do it.  Then you check the box.  You didn’t die.  Do it again tomorrow.   Negative self-talk is destroying us.  Being healthy is simple, meaning it is not complicated. Our overactive brains are what’s complicated.  Break up with your mean ole self until she/he can be an encouraging friend again.   

The same holds true for others who feed the negativity in your head.  I know how that sounds.  You don’t need to totally end your friendships (or maybe you do), but you need to take a break and keep the Negative Nellys and Neds to their own for period of time.  You need to surround yourself with people who feed your soul. You’ll find yourself being quite the inspiration to Nelly and Ned in the very near future!  

Make one move in the right direction.  Small steps are still forward movement and eventually get you where you are going.  Standing still gets you nowhere! 

DECIDE THAT YOU ARE WORTH IT, AND PRIOTITIZE YOURSELF!

Someone else will always come first if you let them.  When the schedule is tight and you are just “so busy” as we all are, find a way to prioritize your exercise, food preparation, and mental health time.  When people are too busy, that really means they haven’t made it a priority. Our time is our most valuable asset. We give it away to happy hour, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, and Candy Crush before we will give to our own health.   There is just so much to say about this topic, so I think this is enough for now.  

There are 6 months of 2020 left!  You can still make it a good year.  What’s that quote about throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Yeah…don’t do that. It’s been weird, but it’s not dead.

 2020 can still be your year!