I’m Baa-ackkk, did ya miss me? Did ya, did ya, did ya?
Hey ya’ll, I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but I have been off the radar again. The good news is I just read an awesome article about “Back Sliding”. The article was written by Carolyn B. Ellis.
Carolyn reminded me that:
- Progress is never a straight line. Often it’s a matter of one step forward, two steps back.
- Backsliding after we’ve started some new habits or set new goals is common.
- The choice you make after you’ve “fallen off the wagon” that is critical.
The best of intentions can get crushed by procrastination, old habits or disempowering thoughts. Here are a few tips Carolyn gave to get (me) back on track.
1. Celebrate Your Awareness
Do you immediately launch into self-recrimination and judgment when you backslide? Instead of beating yourself up, choose to celebrate your awareness. Within the seeds of the breakdown are the keys to creating a lasting breakthrough.
Action Step: Come up with a positive mantra or affirmation to use when you discover you’re out of integrity with your goals. Try “Hey, I’m curious about what took me off course,” instead of “Hey, you loser, you blew it again!” Love yourself forward.
2. Patience is a Virtue
In a world addicted to instant gratification, creating empowering new habits and thoughts takes discipline, repetition and, often, time. How many years did it take to create the bad habit in the first place? A few decades perhaps? Is it so unreasonable to think it may take you a few weeks or months of focused intention and action to unlearn a lifetime of mental programming?
Action Step: Catch yourself when you get impatient and stop. Impatience is a quality of the ego-self, not the Higher Self. While sometimes a permanent shift can just take a split second, often we simply need to be more patient with our process.
3. Think Outside the Box
Einstein said it best when he observed that trying to solve problems at the same level of thinking that created them is an exercise in futility. It’s like trying to hammer a nail, when the only tool you have is a saw. Breaking out of deeply ingrained subconscious patterns often requires thinking outside the box.
Action Step: Realize there’s a lot you don’t know you don’t know. Work with a coach, find an accountability partner, or connect with like-minded people who are achieving the success you want to create as a way to break loose from old patterns.
I hope ya’ll like Carol’s advice as much as I do. FYI, Carolyn B. Ellis is the founder of ThrivePrinciples.com and BrillianceMastery.com. To learn more about the life-changing THRIVE Principles ™, visit www.ThrivePrinciples.com
Thanks for allowing me to share as I face life with Lupus,
Ruby
In closing, I have never met Carol, but her article lifted me up, so I decided to lift her up.
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