Breaking Cycles & Revisiting Goals

Hey guys, happy Friday!

I’ll have to keep this blog post relatively short as I have work really early this morning!  I did some “soul searchin” last night and realized that the only way I’m going to get out my slump is by being brutally honest with the consequences of prolonging snapping out of it.  I don’t mean I’m going to go all drill sergeant on myself, but I need to truly recognize that if I keep on this path, I will only make things worse for myself which will further aggravate my current feelings of slumphood.

This past weekend I reached out to a friend for some advice and I remember that she said something amazingly smart.  At the time, I recognized how smart it was, but I guess I just moved on and didn’t practice it!  What did my wise little friend say? We’ve got to break the vicious cycles in our lives. As I thought about that last night, it became so clear (thank you, clarity!) — remember where I posted here on that study that without direction we go in circles?  Its so true!  I have a number of bad cycles going on concurrently in my life right now and while I can recognize them (thankfully), I haven’t done much to stop them except complain about them.  What’s sadder is that a lot of these cycles have been going on for the majority of my life!  How have I let myself become ingrained in such soul-crushing, vicious cycles as if I were held captive and completely powerless?  So, I thought about it, and these are my steps for getting out of this slump:

• Reflect. A brain is a terrible thing to waste and while it can be very good at telling us something is wrong, it would be much more efficient if it told us how to fix it.  I need to reflect on what initiates and propels my slumps. I’m finding that digging for the answers can be a little tough to bare — sometimes we find reasons that we didn’t really want to recognize.
• Break the cycles. Yes, it’s not just a cycle I need to break, it’s multiple cycles.  I can’t fix one thing just to find that it was intricately connected to another problem that still exists.  I’m literally writing down the cycles I want to break and figuring out the common ties and how I may circumvent them or cut them out completely.
• Revisit your goals. My health goals need to be more pronounced and reasonable.  It can’t be simply about numbers and sizes or even statements like “I just want to be healthy.”  I need to figure out exactly what I want out of my health goals and out of my life.  It’s all related and I can’t lose sight of what I’m actually working towards because it makes falling into a slump that much easier.  I’ve made a list of all of my short- and long-term goals.  I have to know what I’m not accomplishing when I’m busy being slumpy. I need my physical and mental well-being so that I can thrive in life. That’s what being “healthy” is all about, right?  Being a size 0 or weighing in at xyz won’t help me get my PhD.  Being physically and mentally healthy and resolute will — but “healthy” is such a personal thing.  Only I have my specific “healthy.”  A sample of some of my long-term goals: get PhD in English, teach at university, sing in front of large crowd.  Marriage and children might be on that list, but I don’t want to scare any unsuspecting lurker (the boyf ).
• Set yourself up for success. It’s not enough to re-visit my goals, I have to set myself up to achieve them.  Sure I’m doing well enough at working towards most of my goals, but when I truly reflected on what I want to accomplish in my life, I was surprised at some things that popped up.  I have to always take the time to re-visit my goals and to see if I’m actually making progress towards them, or simply going around in circles.

What are some of your short- and long-term goals?

Give-Away Round Up

• Win some Revival Soy Protein Chips here — Ends tonight 9 p.m. EST
• Win a copy of the Eating Well cookbook here
• Win a jar of Tropical Traditions’ Organic Raw Canadian Honey here
• Win a pair of Pearl Izumi Women’s Infinity Shorts (size M or L) here
• Win two loaves of Dave’s Killer Bread here
• Win a copy of The China Study here

So what’s on the agenda for this weekend, guys? I’ll be pretty busy watching my niece and getting ready for my brother’s wedding this Sunday, but I have a video post coming up soon (maybe today!), so stay tuned!

<3, The Cranky One