Getting Back On Track After The Holidays
With the New Year's and Christmas holidays now behind us, it is time to turn our attention forward and work towards getting back on track after the festivities.
In today's post, we will explore exactly that, offering practical advice drawn from my own experiences to make this transition as seamless and enjoyable as possible.
If you are eager to resume your routine after some time off or seeking guidance or advice on this topic, then you have come to the right place.
I hope you gain something valuable from this 🥰
HOW TO GET BACK ON TRACK
Determine Your Intentions
The first step in getting back on track is to step back into alignment with yourself and determine in which direction you want to head. In this sense, you have to determine what your top priorities are going forward, for example, in both your personal and professional life and why you prioritize these things.
Additionally, consider which habits you want to build and that would benefit you most when it comes to getting back on track. Some habits, such as these, include building a consistent sleep schedule or prioritizing a varied and nutritious diet.
Make a note of these intentions and habits and keep it as a reference for yourself somewhere where you won't forget about it.
Setting Relevant Goals
Goals can be a very useful and more concrete way of visualizing and establishing your sense of direction and personal aspirations.
Here you want to determine what you want to achieve from today onwards and always have a clear “why” in your head, as this will keep you grounded throughout your whole journey towards your goals.
To ensure that you set your goals in the most useful ways, make sure to design your goals based on the SMART framework, which will make sure that your goals are well-established and that you can realistically achieve them in the time period you set to do them in. There is no good in setting highly unrealistic goals, as you will only be demotivated as a result.
I am not trying to say not to dream big, but I think it is much better to set a realistically sized goal or one which is slightly outside your comfort zone so that you make sure you can still achieve it and that it will give you an adequate boost of confidence and motivation to keep going.
Establishing Functional Routines
Although for some people routines may carry a negative connotation, routines which we set ourselves in our personal or professional lives can be a great way to support our long-term success and any habits which we want to keep up with.
In the mornings, for example, routines can be a great way to mentally prepare ourselves for the day ahead while in the evenings, they can be very useful for calming us down and helping us to unwind after a long day.
What's most important is that you design and pursue a routine that not only works and supports your lifestyle but that you also enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy something, it will make it that much harder to follow through with something in the long term.
It’s also important to mention that just because one routine works for someone, it does not mean it works for everyone else. Everyone is different, with different preferences and styles of working best, which is why it is key to design this routine based on your own lifestyle and intentions.
Lastly, contrary to what is commonly portrayed on the internet or on social media, these routines do not have to be extremely long, complicated, or painstakingly unenjoyable. The main point of a routine is to help you build consistency with something - what that activity is and how you choose to promote being consistent at that activity is up to you. Have fun with it :)
Curating Your Environment
If we want to best ensure that we successfully follow through on the goals, intentions, and routines which we previously established, our environment plays a huge role in making these aspirations as effortless and accessible as possible.
For example, if one of your goals after returning back from a long holiday is to return to a balanced and healthy diet, then it will likely not be of much use to keep loads of unhealthy and processed snacks or drinks at home.
Similarly, if one of the intentions which you set yourself is to be able to productively focus for longer periods of time, it makes sense to turn off or put away any potential sources of distractions whether that be in your digital or physical space.
The idea is to align and design your environment - your living and working space - in a way which supports your goals and intentions. This is a key step as it makes following through with your commitments as frictionless as possible.
Sticking To A Schedule
One of the key reasons for scheduling your activities or your personal commitments into a weekly or monthly schedule is that it promotes consistency. Consistency is one of the most underestimated yet high-yielding skills anyone can develop over time, and it allows you to consistently work, build, or improve on something ultimately helping you to get closer to that goal or achievement that you are striving for.
Based on the goals, habits, and routines which you want to implement into your lifestyle, figure out which of these activities is best done on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis and try to enter them into a calendar or some sort of task tracking software.
If you make these repetitions automatic it once again makes the process of sticking through your commitments that much more likely since you also won't forget about what you promised to yourself.
Creating Accountability
Depending on your current level of discipline, you may find that sticking to a set routine or schedule constantly can be quite challenging and effort-intensive, especially when the unpredictability of life comes our way.
One way to make this process of building consistency of a habit or ritual is to do these activities with someone else or share your personal goals and commitments with other close people who support you so that they can every so often check up on your progress and keep you on track.
Accountability is the foundation of doing anything consistently.
That is not to say that accountability only comes in the form of doing something with someone else, but can also be done through setting reminders on your phone or other devices to remind you of your intentions and routines that you are gradually building.
Realize What Is Within Your Circle Of Control
You have to acknowledge that no matter how clear or well-established your intentions are, that sometimes unpredictable aspects of life will come in our way, usually in the times we least expect it. This is a normal part of life and it is important to be able to not only be aware of this phenomenon but to also take it into account for when we are planning our lives.
There will always be some aspects of our life which we can control and others which are completely out of our circle of control.
If you find that something gets in the way of you achieving your plans, identify whether this is a factor that you have control over and if so, how can you prevent it from derailing you in the future. If it's something you can't control, then realize that the best way to go about this is to accept it for what it is since you can't really change anything about it and realize that everyone has to make peace with such factors.
Staying Flexible
Relating to the previous point, when we do find that something derails us off of our track - whether it is something unpredictable that happens in our daily environment or when we feel our personal willpower or discipline starting to wane - we need to be flexible and adaptable to get our feet back on track.
We have to realize that whether and how we get ourselves back on the right course towards our goals is much more important than the number of times we get derailed. In the end, the people who are most resilient and most adaptable to unpredictable circumstances are also the ones who are much more likely to reach and fulfill their aspirations.
It all takes practice and gradual daily improvements where it's key to know that one setback or wrong step won't mess up your entire journey.
Reward And Repeat
Once you have a routine established that works for you and you are successfully staying consistent, make sure to also every once in a while reward yourself to stay motivated and encourage yourself to keep going.
All of this consistency is at the end of the day very similar to the process of habit building for which we need a reason to keep doing or repeating something.
Additionally, the motivation to continue doing something does not necessarily only have to come from rewards per se, but is actually commonly the result of doing or starting to do something in the first place. Contrary to common belief, motivation is the result of action, instead of motivation being a prerequisite to starting or doing something.
Make sure that this reward or incentive for continuing to do something is something that you actually enjoy and get pleasure out of. It doesn't only have to be limited to treating yourself to a physical gift or some other material good (however if that is what you like best then go for it), but it can also be extended to treating yourself to an experience for yourself or with your friends, or enjoying some good food or going for a weekend/day trip to somewhere.
Life is also in large part about having fun and enjoying the process, so why not make the process of getting to your goals as enjoyable as possible?
Be Kind To Yourself
Lastly, keep in mind that occasionally everyone makes mistakes, makes a wrong decision, or does something to a lesser standard than what we promised to ourselves.
In such situations, there is little point in beating yourself up over it since that will just completely discourage you from ever getting back on track but instead first realize that setbacks like these happen to everyone and secondly, that the way you react or get back up from setbacks is within your control.
You can't always choose how many times you fall down but you can always choose how many times you choose to get back up. Use that to your advantage.
We are all only human at the end of the day giving each day our best effort, so make sure to be kind to yourself on this journey and to take care of yourself and those who support you.
