Nothing tramples progress faster than “ah-screw-it” absolutist thinking.
Let’s say you’ve had a strong week on the diet front, prepping and eating all your meals to plan.
Until Friday rolls around… and you ditch another Tupperware meal at your desk to join your co-workers on the patio for tacos and drinks.
No big deal.
But then ah-screw-it swoops in, and suddenly you’re considering making the weekend a “diet holiday” and picking things up again on Monday.
In other words, turning a single dietary stumble—one that in the grand scheme will have zero effect on progress—into a multi-day mulligan that WILL set you back.
Instead, what if after finishing work on Friday, you opted to “think BIG and act SMALL?”
* Thinking BIG means looking at Friday’s lunch as an isolated event in an otherwise good run of consistent positive actions.
* Acting SMALL means narrowing your focus and placing all your attention on the next decision or opportunity—no matter how trivial it may seem.
Maybe you save a few hundred calories by reducing carbs or fats from your evening meal. Or pass on that bedtime snack and go to bed a little hungry. (You won’t starve!)
Now Saturday has POTENTIAL. Get in a little extra movement and things are very much back on track.
But even if the whole weekend does turn into a free-wheeling dietary shitshow, you’ve still got to pull up and out of the weeds.
In the moment, three days of overeating may look like an utter failure.
But a few weeks from now, when you consider the big picture, you’ll hopefully see the event sandwiched by a month of diligent focus and 90%+ consistency.
In that context, three days is nothing but a blip.
So watch for your next “ah-screw-it” moment and weigh your options.
Maybe you’ve been smashing it for weeks and can ride this out largely unharmed?
Or, more likely, you’re in desperate need of some consistency and narrowing your focus can quickly get you back on track.
Think BIG, act SMALL.
– Coach Bryan