Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Now or Then?

(via)
I was reading this article last night and it talked about how we tend to focus on long term goals instead of short term ones.  They talked about how health or any goals we have can fail based on a concept called "delay discounting" and the further off the reward the more we tend to discount it.  Or sometimes it seems so unattainable that it ends up losing its value.  But if you make the reward more immediate it might be easier to make choices that ultimately end up getting us toward our goals.

Like instead of skipping workouts you have to remind yourself why doing them makes you feel good today.  Does it give you stress relief?  Start your day off right?  Make you feel like a beast to conquer that hard exercise or give your all?  Does it give you that much deserved 'me time?'

I read this at a point I felt like I was at the bottom of a pit with Nate Fisher shoveling dirt on my grave.  I have an avalanche of crap that needs to be done with various timelines, some negotiable and some not.  It's the same avalanche I find myself in this time every year.  I know it's coming and I do nothing to get myself out from under it but always keep my eye on the future reward whether that be a vacation, reaching more people, reaching weight loss goals that seem like they will never come and all that jazz.

I have to focus on what will relieve the stress off of me today!  (This post being one of them.  Sometimes I stare at the screen and say "yeah...I got nothin'.")  Then I begin to worry that I'm not an inspiration anymore and why the heck would you stick around here when there are so many other people who are actually moving forward.  Basically totally discounting the success I touted yesterday about how we rocked it food and movement wise on a mini vacay because I know we live in a very "what have you done for me lately, Miss Jackson?" kind of world.  I'm not saying that to fish for compliments or petty crap like that, I'm just trying to relay the thought process.  It tends to be that way when I go through an episode.  My current episode is one that just has me completely sh*tting on myself for a lot of things I have failed at.  Some of it has to do with comparisons...everyone else is better and I suck.  It's an episode that is coming at the worst possible time because again, I have nothing but this Jenga skyscraper wobbling over me and any second it's going to crash down and bury me.

Why the eff I don't I do a to do list??  I know how good it feels to physically cross something off of that list yet here I sit.  It would go a long way to help me prioritize what needs to get done most urgently that will eventually benefit me long term.  I need to make that a priority this morning so I can see what I can do today to eventually make for a better tomorrow.

Do you only plan for the long term and avoid planning for the short term?

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11 comments:

  1. I am terrible at talking myself out of ambitious things because it all looks daunting. This is a great reminder that everything takes time and you can only tackle so much each day. The most successful companies sometimes took years to take off and they did it in incremental stages, we all need to remember that.

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    1. Yes, when it looks daunting, I throw my hands up and say it's too hard or too much work. Part of the reason I'm not as successful as I'd like to be. I've unfortunately always had that attitude.

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  2. I go through phases. Sometimes I'm good about the short term stuff, sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm just a slug and mess up whatever planning I've done.

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  3. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

    Make that list and get your ish done, lady! This way you can go and play. :)

    Big hugs and we know that you are amazing and things will get accomplished.

    Oh and a gem I remember from listening to Dr. Laura to help with comparing if you fall into that trap - "not as good as others, but better than most ."

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    1. Thanks so much sweetie!

      I was able to get quite a bit done yesterday thankfully and now have one big thing crossed off my list. The other is weather related needing natural light and I happen to see some sun peeking in the kitchen. *runs away to film*

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  4. I totally get the "everyone else is better and I suck" mentality. I can circle the drain for weeks in that mode where nothing I do seems to be good enough, smart enough, "perfect" enough. Bah. I hate that feeling. This may sound weird, but there's a phrase I use A LOT when I'm feeling so overwhelmed I don't know where to begin. "Do the Important Things Before the Urgent Things." Sounds bizarre and rather counter-intuitive, but we all have *urgent* things to do, but the *important* things (self care, eating a planned meal, getting up and walking around the house to stretch the legs) tend to get neglected. And an important thing to get off my list is anything that is causing me great anxiety. So sometimes I just have to dive in and say I'm going to work on this for 30 minutes and then let it go. Sometimes I can finish it, and other times, I keep to that timeframe and I feel accomplished for having completed that very short-term goal. And that begins to feed off of itself.

    One day at a time, in five minute increments.... xoxoxo

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    1. Circling the drain is about where I've been for a full week and it sucks and can be hard to swim against the current. I've been in a actual riptide and the waves kept crashing on me when I'd come up for air and this always feels very similar mentally. I did just that yesterday with that seminar I was telling you about and was like "ya know what, I'm not dealing with you today because you're something that I'm piling on myself. I'll get to you next week."

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  5. Everyone's comments are excellent and right on par with I would say. And girl, there is nothing that would keep me from reading your blog - I open it the minute I see it come in. You could recite the back of a cereal box and I'd still keep coming back - writing is just a gift you have and why I feel comforted after I read your blog. It's like visiting with a friend who gets me. Deep down, we are all in the same boat on so many issues.

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    1. Oh my goodness, you are so sweet. I will make you a video of me reading the ingredients of my Kashi cereal. HA! I'm so glad my little space on the internet makes you feel that way. I feel the same...yooz good people! ;-)

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