There’s this sneaking suspicion I have, that if I would just go for it, I might just succeed. It’s entirely possible that success is just one more try away but with every failure, I’ve embraced defeat and gotten complacent. Every now and then, the mood strikes and I give it another shot. But what if I were to really go for it? Like really, really go for it? The feelings those thoughts provoke can be confusing.
I don’t have just one attempt in mind when I think of how many times I’ve given up, gotten distracted, or flat out failed to achieve a goal I’ve set over the years. I’m 45 1/2, so if I think of how many new years resolutions I’ve made, that number alone adds up quickly. Then if I include the business ventures, mlm signups, budgets, weight loss attempts, new hobbies I’ve started, or even the countless crafts I never completed, you will get a good picture of the failure I am.
That might sound familiar to some of you, or it might make you stop reading because you can see immediately what a big fat zero I am, but hopefully it just highlights the fact that I’m human. I am so very human. I’m capable of both failure AND success. So, what if this attempt results in success? What if?
The value of failure
One of the reasons I’ve decided to focus on my blog this year is to help me put to good use, the knowledge I’ve gained from failing. It would be a shame to continue to take for granted all the information these attempts have provided me. I am choosing to ignore the perpetual poppycock in my head that tends to attune to the roar of defeat. This blog is going to focus on the hushed mumble of success each failure earns me.
For example…One of my 2024 goals was to follow OMAD for 52 weeks and blog about each week. I got off to a good start but fell off the wagon on week 4. I deleted all my posts about my OMAD resolution and hid my head in the sand…at first. But then I took a moment and peered through the poppycock and saw the nugget of truth this provided me.
The attempted goal of 52 weeks of blogs about my OMAD journey is still doable, but it has to include my successes and failures, and the successes definitely can’t be defined by my OMAD success. I was embarrassed and disappointed by my inability to be a good example, so I quit. I gave up and gave in to the negative self talk and the shame spiral. If I let that perpetual poppycock talk over everything else, that would be a total failure indeed. But it’s not my only option.
The lesson from the failure is that I need to try again another way. The blog postings presented an added stress during a time I was already making a big transition to OMAD. I want to improve my physical health by practicing OMAD and exercising. The blog posts were meant to keep me focused and show what’s possible. I wanted to offer people something that would help them during their own attempts at self improvement but it didn’t feel like I was giving them that. It felt insincere because I wasn’t able to stick to the plan 100%.
What I’m finding is that the goal of achieving improved physical health by practicing OMAD has to be my guiding principle. It can’t be the blog posts because they aren’t what’s really important to me. It’s a small shift in how I’m thinking about the process but its going to reap bigger rewards because I won’t sweat the stuff that doesn’t directly apply to my goal. That shift silences some of the perpetual poppycock that distracts me from continuing towards success.
Once I figured out that the posts would only be helpful if they were sincere and spontaneous, I was able to let go of that distraction and get back to focusing on the real goal.
As a result, I had a good week. I practiced OMAD Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I listened to two audiobooks that I used in the past to learn about fasting and its benefits, reigniting my interest in the process, and I finally went for a long walk for the first time in months. That is what success looks like.
I have no idea if I lost any weight. I have no idea if the chemical and hormonal changes that fasting provides made any big dividends. I have no idea if my muscles benefited from the walk. But I do know that my mind is clear for a moment, and I am focusing on the successes this week, instead of the failure.
This is going to be a marathon, definitely not a sprint. The elephant will be eaten one bite at a time. The only constant you will find is that time will pass no matter what, and you get to choose what to do with each second of it. I will fast. I will feast. I will exercise. I will rest. I am going to see what happens when I fast more than I feast, and I exercise more than I relax.
That is just one example of how I’m working on changing my ways. I have long wanted to find a way to earn extra money for retirement one day. I’ve always wanted to learn a second language, and to learn to play an instrument. These goals have always eluded me because of the perpetual poppycock standing in the way. It’s crazy to let that keep happening.
What if I really go for it? Let’s see!
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