Do you feel like you are swimming upstream lately? Not making any progress on your goals? This is the time of year when many people who made a new year’s resolution tend to fall off the wagon. Have you reached that point? Are you stuck in a rut?
Am I Stuck In A Rut?
I have had an extremely busy start to my year. I ran the Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge in Florida from January 3-to 10. Then I was in Seattle for Sales Immersion training for work. That was an incredible, fast-paced week with a lot of learning, socializing, and traveling all squeezed between Monday and Friday. I loved it and want to implement everything I learned right away to produce 100% results immediately….. but it doesn’t work that way.
New Experiences At Work
Working in sales is something new for me and I had an epiphany this past weekend. I am used to project work. I build a website from a spec, have a deadline to get the work done, do it, and it’s done. That’s not the case with sales. Sales is like planting a garden. You have to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water and feed the plants, then they will provide you with a consumable product after several months of care and attention. So while I thought I was stuck in a rut, I realized it may feel like I am; but a lot of it has to do with learning how to find milestones in this type of work that I am doing.
Physical Fitness
In the physical fitness portion of my life, yes, I am stuck in a rut. After I got back from the Dopey challenge, I continued to run for pleasure 3-4 miles at a time, several times a week. I also got back into my strength training routine in a more regular basis. But then I hurt my back. I have not been able to run for 2 weeks and I’m starting to stress out. I have the Walt Disney World Princess Fairytale Challenge this coming weekend. I’m not going to freak out about it though. After a few more visits to the chiropractor, the pain will be gone and I view it as an opportunity to run on fresh legs for these races.
I will be running with my good Disney running friend Mandy, and this year PK and his daughter are running the half with us. Since PK has trouble with his knee right now we figure we will get through the race, no matter how long it takes. Heck, it’s not like I’ve never chased down the balloon ladies before!
How To Get Out Of The Rut
This past week I started to come out of what I felt was a mental rut with the help of Chalene Johnson’s podcast. Here are a few points that I found useful:
Movement creates momentum – I used that approach to keep myself accountable for doing my strength training (even during my injury) as long as I did the modified movements and knew my limitations with my back. I know running was out of the question and I needed to do my workouts to keep my head clear and to avoid going crazy.
Say it out loud – I had to remind myself of my goals. I had to tell myself that I was going to go workout, put on my clothes and make it an intention that it was still part of my day. I wasn’t going to throw in the towel and let myself off the hook.
Don’t make excuses and focus on the obstacles. Yes, my back was hurt and I couldn’t run. But I still kept moving and working out. My upper body could still benefit from the strength training. Doing lower body work for my legs will just help me later when I can run again and I won’t lose muscle strength in my legs.
Why Am I In A Rut?
This time of year is a real challenge for me. But it’s been harder this year because we don’t have as much snow on the ground. In December and early January, it was bitterly, frigid cold. The kids didn’t want to go outside with it being that cold, and frankly, I didn’t either. Then after Dopey, I was suffering from post-Dopey depression. I was also worried about leaving the kids for a week to go to Seattle, but they were great while I was gone.
Now, I am longing for the warmer longer days and the sprouting signs of Spring. I saw it happen this past weekend. We had a snowstorm Saturday night. Then Sunday was a very warm day that melted most of the snow. We played outside and it was light out until almost 6:00! I’m so glad that change is soon coming where we can play outside or go for walks after dinner.
I also haven’t set any race goals for 2018. Usually by now I have my race plan all figured out. Since I haven’t done that yet, I need to see where and what races I want to participate in. I did put in for the NYC lottery at the last-minute. I’ll see what comes of that. But I need to take some time to think about my running intentions for this year.
If you are ever in a rut, follow those steps I mentioned above. You have to put the effort in. No one will do it for you. You may have a friend or a spouse who can encourage you to do what you should do; but it’s up to you to lace up the shoes and get moving.
I found that what is helping me is when I make a To Do List in my weekly planner. I need to see what I have in front of me and then cross those items off. I work better with a defined list.