Don’t Let Yesterday Ruin Tomorrow

When it comes to health it is easy to get wrapped up in an intense routine. When trying to stick with that routine it is also easy to get frustrated. When most people get frustrated, that is the end of the routine. It’s not that people don’t want to continue to work out and eat well, it is just a difficult thing to do.

There is no way around it: Healthy living is not easy. Even experts and people that have been doing it for years have days and even weeks that just aren’t as good as they want them to be. We’ve talked about the difference between experts and beginners before. More specifically, we have talked about what happens when things get difficult.

When a routine gets difficult, beginners get frustrated while experts get realistic. The hardest part about staying on track is not avoiding challenges. The hardest part about staying on track is realizing that they are going to be there no matter what you do. Avoiding challenges is impossible, but being ready for them and adjusting is not.

Adjustment is the difference between getting back on track and simply quitting. If you can’t adjust, you can’t succeed in anything. Health is no different. When challenges come along, you have to figure out how to get around them or you will be stuck in the same place.

That place is not fun. For anyone, beginner, expert or somewhere in between, this place can be very difficult. The key in any routine is to figure out how to get out of it as quickly as possible. That doesn’t mean that panic or haste is necessary.

When it comes to getting back on track and out of the place of difficulty or frustration, we actually have to take a step back. It feels counter-intuitive, but relaxing and giving yourself a break may be the answer to getting back into it. You can’t change what difficult situation is presenting itself now. What you can change is how you react to it.

You have two options:

1. Get upset and beat yourself up about what you didn’t get done.
2. You can stop and think about how you can get back on track and get it done tomorrow

These options are pretty black and white. There is the road that leads to more frustration and ultimately failure. Or there is the road that leads you back to the road you want to be on. Everyone falls off at some point, but if you know your way back, it’s not a big deal.

You can’t change what already happened. You can’t undo anything. That is why looking backwards is so frustrating. It’s not just because you didn’t get something done or missed your goal. It is most frustrating because you can’t change it anyway. You can think about yesterday all you want, but you cannot change it. That is why we need to focus on what we can change.

What can we change? We can change tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes a success when today’s actions are in line with what we want tomorrow. You have to look ahead in order to get there. You can look behind to reflect, but if you spend too much time there it is easy to get frustrated at the little things that didn’t work the way you wanted them to work. Chances are there were things that could’ve gone better, but the more time we dwell on them, the longer it takes to get back to focus on today and tomorrow. If you must look backward, do it quickly and move on.

Looking forward is what successful people do. Whether you are talking about health, business or any other area, you know that to be successful, you have to set goals and have a vision of what you want your future to look like.

When it comes to health, most people have a vision of what they want the future to look like, but they lack the goals or action steps to get there. The action steps that are going to impact your routine are in front of you, not behind you. If you can do something today or even tomorrow, you can be on track. No matter what happened yesterday, you can’t change it. The only thing you can change is what is in front of you.

The importance of this concept comes into play when things are not going the way they should. If you are just coming off of a bad weekend, a long work-week, a trip or anything that made your routine feel like a challenge, just remember that you can’t change what you did or didn’t do last week, weekend or on that vacation. However, you can change what you do tomorrow to make up for it.

If you keep beating yourself up, you are just adding to the frustration. The more frustrated you are, the harder it will be to get back into your routine. If don’t get back on track tomorrow, you are letting yesterday ruin your chances of being successful today or tomorrow.

That is what happens when you spend too much time looking backward. When we refocus and realize that tomorrow is a new day, we give ourselves permission to let go of yesterday’s failure and turn it into tomorrow’s success. The days are completely independent of one another. What happened yesterday has no effect on tomorrow unless you let it. Don’t allow the past to affect your future. Don’t let yesterday ruin tomorrow.