Slipping Back To How Things Used To Be

One of the most difficult parts of self-improvement is sustaining the positive changes you’ve introduced into your life.

We’re all good at catching a wave of motivation - Getting into better habits, making healthier choices, avoiding distractions and staying more focused on what matters and what’s working. But when the motivation dies off or a big life disruptor comes in, it can be really hard to stay consistent and maintain the level you’re at.

If you have a tendency to lose your progress and slip right back into how things used to be, here are a few things to have in place that will support you in actually keeping the good habits you’ve worked hard for. 

The first thing is having awareness of the slip. Often there’s no big moment where all of a sudden you stop eating healthy and exercising, or you’re spending too much time on social media again. It’s a gradual transition that is almost invisible to see if you’re not looking at it. 

That’s why awareness is so important. Rather than things changing without you realizing it and ending up where you don’t want them to, you can have pieces in place that make you aware of if you’re meeting certain expectations in your life.

That leads to the second element, which is clarity. If you’re not crystal clear on what your standards are, then it’s impossible to know if things are slipping. For example, let’s say that you were working out 4 times a week. Then something happens and you stop working out so consistently. With full-clarity on how often you want to exercise, you’ll notice that you’re starting to slip when you review the week and see that it only worked out twice. The clarity gives meaning to the awareness.

And last, you need a system for reviewing your performance. When things are out of sight, they’re out of mind and no longer a priority. If you’re not intentional about paying attention to the things that are focuses for you, they’re naturally going to gravitate toward their comfort zone. That’s why you build a system for it. Something that’s easy, consistent, and keeps you honest. Not having a system means it’ll take more effort and be less reliable.

Don’t push a boulder up a hill for 3 weeks just for it to roll back down. Make sure you have the resources you need in place to hold yourself accountable to reaching a higher standard. Do not neglect to do the fundamentals. And once that feels more manageable then you know it’s time to grow again!