“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”Winston Churchill

As you can imagine from the title of today’s blog, all has not been going as well as I should like in relation to my diet and exercise plan. There have been a number of reasons, or excuses for this. However I am not going to dwell on those here.

Suffice to say, today I start again. In the past I have often been disappointed In myself when I am anything but perfect. I am sure this is something that resonates with all of you at some point in your lives.

I have fairly recently started to try and go on a bit of a journey to try and afford myself the same curtesy that I give every other human on the planet. If I were talking to a friend, or anyone really, and they explained to me that they were supposed to be on a diet and exercise plan, that they had not been as committed to it as they would like. I would say to them, just keep pushing forward, progress not perfection.

Our lives are so busy at times, we are only human and as such our energy levels ebb and wane accordingly. So what am I doing to work on boosting my motivation again, and increase my energy levels?

1. Forgive myself for not making the progress that I wanted
2. I have started a new course, it is with people who I have completed other very interesting and motivating courses with in the past. As part of this monthly course, there are a number of topics, which I will go into more depth next time, but there are huge elements in there for self care.
3. Plan in some rest time, running my business, a house on my own, and my 3 dogs is already a huge undertaking in itself. It is little wonder that at times I feel exhausted. I also work on my business in one way or another every day, I have identified that I do actually need a bit of a break.
4. Remove some pressure from myself, I always hold myself to such a high standard, and if I stumble from my self imposed standard, I chastise myself endlessly. This is not helpful, and I would not do it to others. I am determined to be kinder to myself.
5. Take 15 mins every day to appreciate what I have achieved in that day. Sometimes, when it is a hard day that achievement can be as simple as getting up and going to work despite not wanting to.

and finally….

6. Just keep going, everyday, despite what happened the day before, get up and start again.

I hope that this self reflection helps some of you to look at yourselves, with more kindness. In relation to the dogs, we had a fantastic first weekend of competition. Izzy won a second in agility, and a clear first place in the jumping. Although the babies didn’t manage to win any rosettes, this is their first competitive season out, they are getting much stronger at understanding what they need to do.

Lilly is less distracted and is actually looking for the jumps more. Spudley is gaining confidence and understanding that what he is doing is right. This is a really important stage for them, and does tie in nicely to what I was saying earlier. This period for them is about learning and although to some it may appear that they have failed due to no rosettes. The bigger picture is that this foundation will give them confidence, and trust in themselves and me. Very important skills and will ensure that they have success.

There is still a lot of work to do, but I am very focused on where I want to be in a years time, Progress not perfection! See you next time…