For as long as I can remember, I've used Mondays as a reset day. It was the day filled with hope and possibilities. I started every new diet, every new exercise program, every new venture meant to improve my life in some way.
And every week ended in disappointment.
I spent most of my life overbooking my schedule with more plans than I could keep up with. I was never able to reconcile my actual capabilities with the way I filled my calendar. Each week ended with a rescheduling of tasks and meetings that I couldn't get to, and I felt like a constant failure.
Why was it so hard for me to face that there were times that my diabetes or depression would sideline me for a day or three? Why did I continue to make plans when a manic mood kicked in that were based solely on what I could perform in an ideal and unrealistic scenario and ignored my need for self-care?
I've spent the last two years focusing on overcoming my feeling of failure by changing my expectations. I redefined success based on my personal set of talents and challenges. Finally, I was able to break the cycle of disappointing myself and others by promising more than I could consistently deliver.
I began treating myself as I would a client, focusing on baby steps of continual improvement toward a set of thoughtfully designed goals and prioritizing my activities based on what I needed right now, each and every day.
I started focusing on self-care. I knew that stress was detrimental to health and I learned how to reduce my stress level by keeping my calendar full of white space as a buffer in case I needed some downtime. My schedule now included daily gratitude sessions and fun dates with myself instead of a constant push for production.
I practiced living in the moment, a difficult and new practice for me. It forced me out of the constant multitasking and juggling act I performed for decades. Life became a constant joy instead of a constant race. I smile a lot more now.
I adopted a whole-food plant-based way of eating, honoring my body's need for nutrition, and learning how to satisfy my love of delicious food by learning to cook. Slowly and steadily I worked my way along a spectrum to the point where I am now about 99% compliant with a diet without animal products, oil, or processed food.
These are the foundations of the action plan I built for reaching my health goal. My goal is to live well into my 90s as independently as possible, despite my T1 diabetes.
Today is the start of My Best Always' private group coaching. This week we take a deep dive into health, one of the twelve focus areas defined in the Circle of Life. We'll be honing our personal health goals, assessing our current status honestly to understand the gap between today and reaching our goals, and choosing and committing to two or three actions for the upcoming quarter that will move us a step closer to our personal vision of success.
To become a member of My Best Always, send me a message or comment below and I'll get in touch. It's $5/month, $50/year, and if you sign up for the year before the end of April 2020 you get the first two months free. (I'm almost done adding the membership option to my website, but for now I'm managing it manually.)