“A life has to move or it stagnates. Even this life, I think. Every tomorrow ought not to resemble every yesterday.” ~ Beryl Markham
Change takes time. Often, the effects are cumulative and when we have a setback, it’s easy to let the setback escalate into a slow drift off-course again. If you give up entirely or let those obstacles snowball, you may not notice the gains and wins and small successes that, over time, will add up to feeling, looking, and living better.
When I learned to fly, I’d get nervous when there was strong turbulence. Hey, I’m a brave gal, but when you’re flying in a small metal can in the windy Sierra Nevada mountain range, the ride can get pretty wild. My instructor said something that I’ll never forget. (In an annoyingly calm voice, I might add.)
“We’re just a twig in the water.”
I refrained from snapping, “What’s that supposed to mean?” as I white-knuckled the yoke and instead listened to her explanation.
“Air currents are similar to the movements of a river or stream. They flow and move like water. Like a twig floating on the surface of a stream, we are floating on the air currents.”
Somehow, that made the turbulence more bearable. We weren’t being assaulted by an outside force but were in it, riding the waves of it, and we knew there’d be calmer air in the future.
There will be bumps. There will be movement—forward, backward, side-to-side. As I’ve stressed before, the important thing is to always keep your ultimate destination in mind. The getting there might be slower but you will get there.
In flying, there is a term known as “drift.” Even when you think you’re on course, the winds of life can push you off course and in a direction you hadn’t intended. Just don’t commit the cardinal flying sin and STALL. If you do, you will eventually find yourself right back where you started, or worse. You will be no closer to your goals or to the life you long for and deserve.
Ride out the bumps. They will pass. Plan for the occasional winds that try to push you off course and keep your eyes on your direction and destination. Nothing can push us permanently off course unless we let it. You get to decide if you’re willing to let a temporary setback turn into a permanent condition.
Accountability
As I discussed before, no one can fly this plane but you. No one will know if you meditated every morning or whether you inhaled a bag of Fritos on a stressful day. You. Will. Know. I’m not even telling you not to do those things. Things happen. Thing should be a verb. “Heaven help me, I thinged today.”
What I am telling you is that your chances of staying on course grow exponentially if you keep accountable with tracking and logging.
Logging progress is an invaluable tool. When I lost 50 pounds, I diligently tracked my food intake. Studies have shown that doing so results in more success. I believe the same is true for other goals. Like weight, progress will fluctuate from day to day but tracking helps you see the overall trend. I don’t worry about the occasional off days or setbacks because, if I look at my progress over time, I see a trend toward my goals. For instance, you may have the rule to do yoga three times per week. Whatever the rule is, write it down on the calendar app of your choice if you’ve accomplished it for that day, week, or month. Not all of your rules will be daily ones. This personalized course will also require personalized accountability. It’s highly motivating to see your progress over time. This helps you to ease off the self-recrimination pedal when you haven’t had the best day or have made choices contrary to where you say you want to go.
When I did my Course Correct, I didn’t mention it to anyone at first. Then, I ended up having two pivotal phone conversations with two of my best friends who couldn’t believe I was going through the very same struggles they were! They knew there were areas of their lives in which they were off-course. They knew they were ignoring the voices of their Highest Selves. All of us at midlife felt a new sense of urgency—not because of a doom feeling that time was running out, but more because we understood that we’d wasted so much time being unhappy. My friends wanted to Course Correct, too. And, they wanted us to support each other.
Action Items
· Find a pretty journal just for the 90-Day Course Correct. No matter what your goals and what areas of your life, you will make discoveries about yourself along the way. It can be very valuable to go back and see where you started vs where you ended up. It can be a cathartic place to vent and question.
* Create an accountability chart. (A bullet journal can work great for this, too.) On one side, list the new rules you’ve prioritized for yourself from the different life zones in Module 4. Keep track of the days you’ve lived by the new rule you set for yourself. We’re not striving for perfection. We’re looking for a general trend toward where you want to end up.
· If “Body/Health” is one of the zones in which you are Course Correcting, I suggest taking a close up of your face and also a photo of your body and take measurements. Do this on day one and again on day 90. Non-scale victories are so important! A scale doesn’t tell you if you’re stronger, less bloated, more rested, or see improvements in your skin or moods. Aside from measurements, this is one of the best things I did to track my progress. I also logged weight and measurements once per week.
