Good evening Friends,
It’s taken a wee while to write todays lightbulb moment, partly because life has got in the way, but partly because I couldn’t quite work out the best way to describe it.
So without further ado, I’m just going to dive straight in…
Lightbulb Moment
I like to set myself a challenge each year.
Some years they are big ones (such as completing a full IRONMAN triathlon), whilst other years they are smaller ones (such as a 10 week body transformation before my 40th birthday).
These challenges are a way to keep me focused as I’m not very good at treading water. Proverbially that is.
I need to see where I am going.
If the quote is true, Albert Einstein said it best:
That is how I now see life.
Rightly or wrongly.
That is my view on the world.
Having something to work towards keeps me focused. So this year, I set myself a goal of walking 3.65 million steps.
Holy moly. That’s a lot.
In simple terms, this means 10k steps every day for a year.
This immediately sounds more manageable, but am sure will take some dedication.
Then there will be days when I will be travelling or perhaps on holiday when I will need to make a concerted effort to get out and walk. It will be interesting to see how I cope.
This is all part of the challenge.
Now the reason for telling you this is just 41 days into the year, I’ve failed.
And it is unbelievably annoying.
When going through the Apple Health app and adding the counted steps to my tracker, I discovered that I missed 10k steps.
Not once, but twice.
F*ck.
This is immensely annoying, especially as there is nothing I can do about it.
It’s in the past, it’s happened, it’s gone.
My immediate reaction was to throw my hands up in the air and curse loudly. But as the emotions flowed; annoyance, followed by rage, followed by disappointment, I began to ponder what do I do now?
With the challenge being set over the course of a year, there is still a long way to go. But after 41 consecutive ‘good’ days, the winning streak was over.
What do I do now? Do I just give up?
These were the questions that are playing on repeat in my mind. And to be honest, I don’t know what my answers are yet.
And this is the lightbulb moment:
Life will have its twists and turns, we will face both successes and failures, but it’s how we handle them that defines us.
Throwing my toys out the (proverbial) pram and having a strop won’t solve my dilemma. Neither will ignoring it.
So I need to decide how I will react to this failure.
Will I let it define my year (a slight over exaggeration granted) or will I learn from this?
Now when it comes to such a trivial challenge as walking 10k steps every day for a year, these questions feel a little OTT.
But the principle remains.
When things don’t go our way, how we react is the important part.
When we get knocked down,
* Do we stay down and feel sorry for ourselves?
or,
* Do we dust ourselves off and get up to try again?
It is easy to sit here and say I know which one I would choose, but when it actually happens, it is easier said than done.
That’s why I was annoyed at myself today.
I want to be of the “get up at ‘em” mindset, never backing down and always pushing forwards. But the truth is, I thought “f*ck it.”
Reflecting on it now, that would be taking the easy way out.
And that is not my style.
So I will take stock over the next fews, continuing to hit 10k steps a day and see where I get too. If I do reset the counter and go again, then time to refocus and start again.
After all, there’s only another 363 more days to go!
Whatever it is you choose to go after this year, be strong and stay committed. Even when things don’t go your way.
Your future self will thank you for it.
With that, have a great week and speak to you next Sunday.
-Bren
PS - In case you are looking for a book to read, here’s a recommendation:
The Book Your Dog Wishes You Would Read
I’ve bought it as a present twice in the last 3 weeks as is a must read for anyone with a dog as a pet.
Enjoy!
