"Your Resolutions Didn't Fail"

Once again, I'm sharing the words of the awesome, Kate "Solo" Solovieva. She's a coach of coaches, has 2 psychology degrees, former university professor, Precision Nutrition Master Coach and so much more. I 've said it before and I'll say it again; I LOVE her work and her approach. It's raw, it's real, it's simple and it's often what we ALL need to hear.

With that, here is a recent newsletter post from Kate sharing words of wisdom that MANY of us NEED to hear and be reminded of. 👇

---

It's January. 

{Are you nodding sarcastically? Yes, yes, we noticed. Is it spring yet?}

Middle of January to end of January is the time when a lot of people are already quietly wondering what went wrong.

You had good intentions.

You made reasonable plans.

You knew what to do. You always know WHAT to do. 

And yet… here you are.

Maybe the resolution didn't stick.

Maybe it started strong and then unraveled.

Maybe you haven't even started and already feel behind. 

I haven't noticed much of an uptick in activity in my little town, and I'm thinking that maybe folks in town just know themselves better than the average population? They have decided long time ago if they were the exercising type or not, and so come January, they just keep doing what they have always done - exercising or NOT. 

So let me say this clearly before we go any further:

New Year's resolutions (any resolutions!) feel hard, because they ARE. 

What we have failed to do along the way is not stick to the thing we said we would. Instead, we failed to set realistic expectations. We failed to plan for failure, AND to use failure as feedback. 

In a interview, someone asked me once:

“Most of us know what to do: eat more vegetables, eat protein at every meal, don't eat too much (or too little), exercise, blah blah blah. Why are we so bad at DOING this, consistently?”

I giggled. Actually, I might have laughed out loud. It was NOT an appropriate response at all, but I did find it hilarious.

The flu season is here, and my four year old has been coughing for four weeks - conveniently with no other symptoms. So, yes, I am sending her to school, convinced that all parents and educators whisper amongst themselves about what a horrible parent I am. 

We pulled both kids out of extended care starting this month, which means more money in my pocket - yay!, but also, that my work day is somehow 2.5 hours. Not really, but it feels that way. Kids are here, and then they are at school for fifteen minutes, and then they are back home, asking for snacks. (Help!).

Yes, we know what to do.

So why don't we do it?

Like… every day?

Consistently?

Perfectly?

For the rest of our lives?

Because… I dunno… life is hard?

Because… shit keeps happening?

[I stopped reading the news years ago, and I highly recommend you do the same for few weeks, then drop me an email and let me know how much better your mental health is. Go on.]

Because… no one (I repeat: NO ONE) is actually doing all the things consistently all the time.

I think most of us truly believe that once we get our shit together, it WILL be smooth sailing.

We WILL drink whey protein, and snort creatine, and smear ourselves in fish oil - not just for a few months at at time, but once and FOR ALL. Also, I will finally learn and remember whether it's “few months” or “a few months”, because I am pretty sure those two mean two very different things, but my immigrant brain just can't… 

We WILL sleep all night peacefully, and wake up and meditate, stretch, and journal, and make a healthy breakfast, and go for a walk to get some sunlight.

[I am assuming someone else will be cleaning our house, doing groceries, taking care of our children, AND going to work instead of us, while we are infrared sauning and tending to our sourdough starter.]

But the truth is… we are always juggling.

We are always responding.

We are always adapting.

There is only doing what you can, when you can, and starting again when you don't.

---