Back to square…two!
Have you ever tried to start a new habit or stop an old one? And have you ever fallen back and had the feeling that you were back to square one? Well, you don’t fall back to square one. You fall back to what I call square two.
Square two is the place where you have experienced success and failure and where you can learn from those to go forward again. Say you’ve decided to exercise every day. After three days you skip your exercise and you feel like you’ve failed and you have to start again. If you start from square two, you will look at what you did to hold on for three days. What did you say to yourself to get motivated? How did you plan your day? How did you feel after your exercise?
Next look at what made you fall back. What did you say to yourself to rationalize the decision not to exercise? How do you feel not having pulled through?
Use what made you successful and deal with what made you fall back and start again. Starting from square one means you haven’t learned anything and you set up yourself to fail again. Starting from square two makes you smarter and better equipped to pull through.
