How often have you started working toward a new goal, full of determination and drive, only to give up when you encounter an obstacle or challenging circumstance?
This happened to me over and over when I was first starting my personal fitness journey. I’d commit to working out three times a week and vow to swap out junk food for healthier options. As long as everything went exactly as expected, I’d be fairly successful sticking to my plan.
But, of course, life never goes as planned. Inevitably, something would happen to throw me off course. Sooner or later, I’d give up on my goal altogether, lose my progress, then have to start all over again at a later date.
The more I went through this demoralizing cycle, the more I became convinced that I could never become fit or healthy. But it’s not that I was doing anything wrong or that I wasn’t capable of change in the first place: I just didn’t have any alternative arrangements to fall back on when I encountered challenging circumstances.
Whenever we are striving for a goal, whether fitness or health-related or otherwise, we will inevitably encounter obstacles.
Rather than being surprised by the hurdles life throws at us, we can learn to plan for them.