Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay
“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.”
― Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
If you’ve read any of my writings on this blog, you’ll notice I am really into self-help. I enjoy improving myself. I enjoy finding hacks to make my life easier, more productive, and efficient. I am constantly testing my performance and trying to find better ways to do things.
One concept I learned a while back was the concept of self-love. Self-love isn’t selfish. It is taking care of you. It is giving yourself a break when you need to buck a routine or you fall short on one of your goals today. It is: remembering you are human and will make mistakes.
I have found over time that the more forgiving I am to myself, the more forgiving I am to other people. We are all flawed, broken, and inconsistent. So are your friends and family. They all have their weaknesses. They all try their best and sometimes they are at their worst.
If you are on a diet and you screw up—so what. You get back on the horse and continue. Your life will not end because you blew off a workout, cheated on your diet, or slept in. You are human, not a machine. Sometimes it’s ok to take a break from your routines or your workouts or your diet or whatever you are pursuing. Self-improvement is a lifelong endeavor, not a onetime thing. You can miss a day. You can have a donut. You can sleep in. The days you take a day off from your habits and your routines is liberating. So I use a “do nothing day”.
Each Sunday I do nothing. I do not pursue my goals; I do not stick with my diet; I do not worry about sleeping in. I literally do what I want to on this day. The rest of the week I stick to my routines, my diet, my workout routine, etc. A do nothing day can be any day you want and it can vary from week to week. Your do nothing day can also include whatever things you would normally do. This is the beauty of a do nothing day—it’s your day and you do whatever you want to.
Pursuing goals plays a piece in any meaningful life. They do not rule you. If one day off a week is too much, take one every two weeks or once a month. I want my goals to be something that inspires me, not something that rules over me. If you have never used a “do nothing day” before, try it. You’ll find, like I did, that it changes your motivation levels immensely at the beginning of the week.
You are human. You are not a machine. You will slip. You will fall down. You will miss your deadlines from time-to-time. It’s ok.
Until next time…
Dave
