Don't be so hard on yourself
Today I woke up feeling guilty that I slept in. Anxiety started to creep in when I started thinking about all the things I wanted to get done before I leave for work. Then I realized, why am I expecting myself to be perfect all the time? Why am I putting so much pressure on myself?
I am someone who has recently learned to love waking up early. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am able to have a couple hours to myself where I can do anything I feel like such as workout, read, spend time with my pup, and I can take my time and not feel rushed to run out the door. I have time to do whatever I want before the rest of the world wakes up. So, essentially the early morning is my sacred "me" time. The time where the house is most quiet, before my pup wakes up and starts begging for food & to be taken out, and the time where I am able to gather my thoughts and set myself up to have an awesome day. If I let myself sleep in, I often will wake up feeling anxious already or feeling mad at myself for not waking up when my alarm went off. Today was one of those days.
I did not get the best sleep last night, and when my alarm went off I felt exhausted. So, naturally, I turned it off and snoozed away. I felt like my body needed the extra rest, so I listened to it. Instead of pushing myself to wake up early and get shit done, I let myself get a bit more sleep so I could feel better throughout the day. Yesterday when I woke up early at 6 AM although I felt like I needed more sleep, I ended up feeling exhausted and lost steam by like 12 PM. So, today I thought maybe I should just listen to what my body needs and allow myself to sleep a little longer. Who cares if I didn't get a workout in or have enough time to do all the things I usually do in my morning routine? It's not like I am going to let myself sleep in every day from now on.
Every new day is a brand new chance to hit the reset button on your life. Some days you will wake up feeling super motivated to hit the ground running and go smash an early morning workout, take your dog for a walk, drink your healthy protein smoothie, read a self-development book, etc etc... And other days you might wake up feeling restless, too sore to workout or just not feeling it, craving pancakes, and wanting to watch TV all morning. Some people might say in order to change your life and be the best you can be, you need to push through those hard mornings and get everything done anyway. Even if you hate it. To me, that just is not an enjoyable way to live life. That is how you get burnt out easily. Why do you think all the "new year, new me" people quit their resolutions after January? Because they go hard for those first couple of weeks, don't take a break, and they end up giving up because it is too hard to maintain that type of lifestyle. Believe me, I've done it multiple times.
The best way to go about your goals and ambitions is to take it one day at a time. Don't think every day needs to be perfect and that you need to give your all every single day. Listen to your body. It took me a long time to understand this. I used to run my body into the ground and although I was getting signals left and right to take a break and go easy on myself, I did not listen to my body. That's a whole separate blog post I am going to make. I think the reason I would do this is because I would constantly see how hard people were going on social media and the whole "no days off" thing would make me feel like complete shit if I didn't go work out or eat healthy every single day. But I ended up getting burnt out because that type of lifestyle just was not for me. Sure, there's people who thrive off of working out every single day and eating super clean & healthy with no exceptions. For me personally, though, it was not sustainable and I felt miserable when I would try to do that.
We live in a society where if you aren't out there trying to reach your goals and working hard every single day, then you are considered lazy or unmotivated or maybe just "don't want it bad enough". But the truth is, life isn't about going hard 100% of the time. Doesn't mean you can sit on your ass and expect your wildest dreams to come true, either. There needs to be a balance. Life is meant to be enjoyed. When you have so many goals & ambitions like I do, it can get overwhelming thinking about everything you need to get done in order to get there. The only advice I can give is to take it one day at a time. Don't push yourself so hard to the point where you get burnt out and give up on everything. Don't make your life miserable and harder than it needs to be. What's the rush? Life will happen as it is meant to happen, and it will happen no sooner than it is meant to. So, no matter how hard you are pushing yourself, and not letting yourself get enough sleep, and doing all these crazy things to reach your goals faster, it will not make you get to where you want to be any faster.
Go easy on yourself. You only get one life and one body to live in. Don't stress yourself out on a daily basis thinking that's the only way you will become a success. If you feel like your body needs a rest day, or two, or three, then just allow yourself to have that. I promise that taking time to rest and listening to what your body needs will not stop you from reaching your goals. It will actually allow you to be more motivated to reach them because you will realize how easy it really is and how you don't need to be miserable while doing it.
I am someone who has recently learned to love waking up early. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am able to have a couple hours to myself where I can do anything I feel like such as workout, read, spend time with my pup, and I can take my time and not feel rushed to run out the door. I have time to do whatever I want before the rest of the world wakes up. So, essentially the early morning is my sacred "me" time. The time where the house is most quiet, before my pup wakes up and starts begging for food & to be taken out, and the time where I am able to gather my thoughts and set myself up to have an awesome day. If I let myself sleep in, I often will wake up feeling anxious already or feeling mad at myself for not waking up when my alarm went off. Today was one of those days.
I did not get the best sleep last night, and when my alarm went off I felt exhausted. So, naturally, I turned it off and snoozed away. I felt like my body needed the extra rest, so I listened to it. Instead of pushing myself to wake up early and get shit done, I let myself get a bit more sleep so I could feel better throughout the day. Yesterday when I woke up early at 6 AM although I felt like I needed more sleep, I ended up feeling exhausted and lost steam by like 12 PM. So, today I thought maybe I should just listen to what my body needs and allow myself to sleep a little longer. Who cares if I didn't get a workout in or have enough time to do all the things I usually do in my morning routine? It's not like I am going to let myself sleep in every day from now on.
Every new day is a brand new chance to hit the reset button on your life. Some days you will wake up feeling super motivated to hit the ground running and go smash an early morning workout, take your dog for a walk, drink your healthy protein smoothie, read a self-development book, etc etc... And other days you might wake up feeling restless, too sore to workout or just not feeling it, craving pancakes, and wanting to watch TV all morning. Some people might say in order to change your life and be the best you can be, you need to push through those hard mornings and get everything done anyway. Even if you hate it. To me, that just is not an enjoyable way to live life. That is how you get burnt out easily. Why do you think all the "new year, new me" people quit their resolutions after January? Because they go hard for those first couple of weeks, don't take a break, and they end up giving up because it is too hard to maintain that type of lifestyle. Believe me, I've done it multiple times.
The best way to go about your goals and ambitions is to take it one day at a time. Don't think every day needs to be perfect and that you need to give your all every single day. Listen to your body. It took me a long time to understand this. I used to run my body into the ground and although I was getting signals left and right to take a break and go easy on myself, I did not listen to my body. That's a whole separate blog post I am going to make. I think the reason I would do this is because I would constantly see how hard people were going on social media and the whole "no days off" thing would make me feel like complete shit if I didn't go work out or eat healthy every single day. But I ended up getting burnt out because that type of lifestyle just was not for me. Sure, there's people who thrive off of working out every single day and eating super clean & healthy with no exceptions. For me personally, though, it was not sustainable and I felt miserable when I would try to do that.
We live in a society where if you aren't out there trying to reach your goals and working hard every single day, then you are considered lazy or unmotivated or maybe just "don't want it bad enough". But the truth is, life isn't about going hard 100% of the time. Doesn't mean you can sit on your ass and expect your wildest dreams to come true, either. There needs to be a balance. Life is meant to be enjoyed. When you have so many goals & ambitions like I do, it can get overwhelming thinking about everything you need to get done in order to get there. The only advice I can give is to take it one day at a time. Don't push yourself so hard to the point where you get burnt out and give up on everything. Don't make your life miserable and harder than it needs to be. What's the rush? Life will happen as it is meant to happen, and it will happen no sooner than it is meant to. So, no matter how hard you are pushing yourself, and not letting yourself get enough sleep, and doing all these crazy things to reach your goals faster, it will not make you get to where you want to be any faster.
Go easy on yourself. You only get one life and one body to live in. Don't stress yourself out on a daily basis thinking that's the only way you will become a success. If you feel like your body needs a rest day, or two, or three, then just allow yourself to have that. I promise that taking time to rest and listening to what your body needs will not stop you from reaching your goals. It will actually allow you to be more motivated to reach them because you will realize how easy it really is and how you don't need to be miserable while doing it.
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