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Broken Resolutions? 3 Steps to Get Back on Track

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March 12, 2010
	Jody England : Head Empowerment Ego

Now that we are a little over 2 months into the New Year, many of us find ourselves slacking on our New Years Resolutions, cutting corners on our diets, or skipping workouts in our new fitness routine. It’s such a vicious cycle! 

We get a little off track, and we start to judge ourselves. We feel embarrassed that we didn’t stick with it, we feel like a failure, and with all that pressure we don’t know how to get back on track – so we end up deciding to just give up.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends were always able to find their way by simply looking for the Yellow Brick Road. If they took a little detour or felt a little lost, they just looked for the shining golden bricks that were the clear and certain path to where they wanted to go.

Wouldn’t it be great if life were so easy for all of us? 

If you’ve found yourself straying from the path you wanted to be on, there are 3 easy steps you can take to put yourself back on the road to Oz.

1. REALIZE YOU ARE OFF TRACK – that you no longer have sight of the yellow brick road and are wandering off course. Sometimes we can be oblivious to where we really stand. We don’t know WHY the scale hasn’t been going down, we rationalize we didn’t NEED to go to the gym today because after all we probably burned a lot of calories putting away all that laundry (you know you’ve done it…) However, there is no power in being unconscious. You have to wake up and take inventory of your current location and be honest about how you got there. Once you recognize that, you are in a position to make a course correction. 

2. GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!  Standing around beating yourself up because you are not currently on the path you wanted doesn’t do anything to move you back to the path. It only delays the time it will take you to get there! Recognize that you are not where you want to be and then begin taking steps to fix it. Make a new agreement that feels good to you and move powerfully forward. Acknowledge yourself for taking responsibility and lose the judgment about it. Every human on the planet has some ebb and flow to their participation, their enthusiasm, and their commitment in any new activity. That is perfectly OK! As long as you don’t stop playing the game, you’ll still come out on top.

3. TAKE ACTION. If you are off the road, the only way to get back on is to turn the wheel, press on the gas and ease your way off the shoulder (or up out of the ditch if you’ve gotten REALLY far off track!). Begin making healthy choices with your next meal, recommit to get in all your workouts this week, pick one area that is most important to you and give it your full attention – TODAY.

There is no right or wrong to this. You don’t get an A+ for stellar “Goal Completion Prowess” or a C for just average efforts. The same is true for all areas of life. All the stuff you beat up on yourself for not getting “right” the first time only means something TO YOU. There will be no final exam or pass or fail at the end. In the end, the only person who has to be happy with your performance is you. 

Being off track is neither good nor bad.  It is what it is. All you have to do is decide: “Is this working for me?  Is it serving me?  Does it FEEL good?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, then you have some cleaning up to do.

So use this moment as a bright shiny reminder that YOU control your destiny. You won’t always be “perfect” along the way, but “perfect” is just a story we tell ourselves to feel better (or worse)! Enjoy the journey and make your course corrections when you need to. Forgive yourself for forgetting every now and then just how powerful you really are… and then get those ruby slippers back on the path and you’ll be off to see the wizard!