Last week I opened up about being on a journey to living a more committed, consistent, and purposeful lifestyle. I even replaced the traditional new year resolutions start date of January 1st, with November as my new and improved resolutions month. This may seem odd at first, but hear me out. For the longest time I’ve approached my yearly resolutions in the same manner, and yielded the same results. I plan my goals in December, start the new year off with a bang, gradually fall off the wagon, and that’s the end of that. Before I know it, most of the year is gone and I’ve accomplished nothing. Like clockwork, I begin the cycle again come December.
I’ve always known that cutting things out cold turkey makes it that much more difficult to maintain, but I still tried it year after year. Truth is, old habits die hard. Without a doubt, it’s definitely time I try something new. So instead of waiting for the new year to rid old habits, I’m starting NOW. There’s no significance to November as my starting point. I just have this urge to do better and I don’t want to wait for a specific date to make real change. For the next 6 weeks, I’ll be working on making gradual lifestyle changes that I can bring in to the new year and beyond.
I have goals for nearly every area in my life, but my top priority right now is my health. I’m working towards improving my physical and intellectual health through exercise, healthy nutrition, learning to destress, think more positively, and by surrounding myself with people who share similar values. Luckily for me I have Jan by my side. This year we started our health and fitness journey by joining a kickboxing studio. We also cut out some of our favorite foods and dropped enough pounds to see real changes in our appearance. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far, but these results didn’t come easy. This year was full of ups and downs, and we fell on our asses ALOT. Often times our diet and exercise suffered because we allowed life circumstances to get us down. Our natural response when things got tough was to put every thing on halt, sadly that meant our health. Here we are today, trying our best to pick things back up to end the year strong.
The point I want to get across in todays message is that it doesn’t matter our circumstances, good or bad. Life happens. We cannot let our situations control our everyday grind. Instead we should grind even harder in challenging times. There are some cases where taking a break is necessary, but the struggle is knowing when to get back at it. Don’t get stuck in a rut where you’re ready to give up. Fight for the life you deserve!
xoxo Jamela
We cannot let our situations control our everyday grind.