When do you default to your old habits?
I’m thinking about this today as I recommit to budgeting, and meal planning, and generally being more intentional. All the tools I need to be good at this stuff are literally at my fingertips—apps, information, lots of ways to monitor and measure. But the driver of all those tools is my intention, my willingness to make it happen.
Recently at the gym, I was working on a gymnastics movement that has eluded me for a long time. And I was getting it! It was working! I was finally doing the thing that I’ve seen other people do (seemingly) effortlessly.
And then, in the very last minutes of class, it all fell apart. My form got sloppy, my body got tired, and I couldn’t quite finish the last rep.
Couldn’t quite finish the last rep. Man, if that’s not a metaphor for all this other stuff.
When it gets hard, what do you do? When you’re tired? When you’re hungry? When does your deliberate, productive intention slip away, leaving you with a sloppy default intention?
If we know when we’re likely to throw in the towel, we can strategize how to hold on for the last rep.
