Creating Discipline with Perseverance
Now that you’ve created a realistic plan for your intentions and understand the type of motivation you need to keep going, we are going to focus on perseverance.
Perseverance is the act of not giving up or the action of continuing to do things even when they are difficult or challenging. I think this idea of being difficult can be a number of things and we cannot ignore that boredom may be one of those things. We’ve been eluding to the ever plateau that we all eventually face when we start something new and the “newness” wears off. This can be just as challenging if not more so than when we come across things that make the barrier of getting closer to our intentions seem farther and farther away.
I think to address perseverance we have to address our expectations for ourselves as we continue on the journey with our intentions set.
For example - we will come back to the fitness intention. Let’s say we pick a program, we lay out how we plan on completing that program, and we also set realistic motivational rewards along the way. We even throw in some new workouts 30 days in to make us focus on different muscle groups and bring in some new motivation. But, let’s say we are struggling one week. This could be a hard week at work, sickness, relationship stress, or even just burn out. This is the challenge that we must persevere through right? What I believe we tell ourselves in this moment is to “keep going” or “it is just one week” and not even realize that we may be pushing too much. So if we weren’t in burn out before, we are definitely going to push ourselves to it then. This is where I believe our intentions are more important than the overall “goal”. So our intention may have been to be more active and make healthier lifestyle choices. So in that week where we are struggling, instead of saying “keep going”, we should be returning back to the original intention. “What is something active that I can still do today or what is a healthy lifestyle choice that I’m going to be ok with today?” With this mindset in mind, we are more likely to show ourselves compassion and less shame so that we can pick up the “keep going” mentality tomorrow or even next week.
The point of perseverance is to never lose sight of the intention.
Now, coming back to the problem of boredom. If we know ourselves pretty well and find that 30 days in we will get pretty bored of the fitness program, throwing in a different program to change it up for a week or two is great idea for this. Some other ideas could be creating a program that you may go back and forth with such as “hybrid programs.” If you have the means necessary, sometimes changing the environment of where you work out can be a good change of pace. You can go outside and complete the same workout or do more running/walking. You could get a cheap gym membership or find a place that offers 2 months for a cheap price. Another idea would also be to change up the time you plan to do your fitness. Sometimes boredom can be relieved just based on routine and changing the every day.
Remember that the intention was to be more active and make healthier life choices. This could be changing the focus from physical fitness to eating choices, supplements, vitamins, and meal planning. This is why coming back to the intention and not the goal can be more rewarding for you and help you work through the challenging times throughout your year.
This may seem like you are avoiding the challenge or difficult part but it is always ok to disconnect and come back to something. This always helps up reset and possibly look at the challenge in a different way.
