In this lesson, we talk about one of the most fundamental skills you can develop, over and over again — the skill of starting over, without discouraging yourself.
- Really key habit skill that we’re going to deepen into this month
- The skill is simply starting again after you’ve missed a day or more of the habit
- The practice is to start again and again, just like you would if you were meditating and counting your breath, simply starting back at 1
- Starting again can be discouraging or frustrating if you have the expectation that you don’t have to start again
- If we can let go of the expectation that we be “perfect” at this, we can simply start again
- Developing the skill of coming back is so incredibly important, in both meditation and habit change
- A good streak that gets disrupted can get very discouraging — just notice the discouragement, and see if you can just come back
- Long term, the discouragement is much more destructive to the habit than just missing a day
- No Big Deal is a good mantra when you miss a day, and then just come back
- A beautiful fresh start — like wiping your todo program clean, and getting to start again
- When you’ve missed a few days … shrink the habit down. Meditate for 2 minutes instead of 20, run for 1/2 a mile instead of your full training plan, just to get started; you’ll get back on track soon
- Encourage yourself however you can: start small, reach out for help, you got this, no big deal
This week:
- To deepen into the skill this month — miss a day or two on purpose, and think No Big Deal, then just start again
You can watch the video above, or here on Vimeo.