So you’ve fallen off the wagon. You were doing great and then something happened. You had an injury, a family tragedy, started a new job, had a baby, or just plain lost your motivation.
It doesn’t matter what that “something” is, what matters is that you put it behind you and mentally prepare yourself to start over. I’ve talked about how you’ll need mental toughness to conquer your goal, but here are some additional tips for getting back on the wagon.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret… success is not linear. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking fitness or otherwise. Everyone thinks that they will start their fitness journey and get a little better each and every day.
Don’t get me wrong, I really do want it to be that easy for you, but my experience has taught me that it isn’t likely. I always like to talk about “perfect world” vs. “real world.” In the perfect world everything goes according to plan, but I don’t know anyone who lives there. Do you?
The real world comes with ups and downs. They call it a “fitness journey” for a reason. Every good story has one or more conflicts, but what makes a great story is how the characters overcome those conflicts.
I live in the real world where there are obstacles thrown at me every day and many of them are completely out of my control. In this world, you’ll have plateaus where you just don’t feel like you’re making any progress (often not your fault) and times where you lose your motivation completely.
Don’t expect to pick up right where you left off. Depending on how long you’ve been off, you may need to start back at the beginning physically. And you know what? That’s okay! Because while your cardio might stink or you can’t do push-ups like you could before, this time you are more experienced.
That experience will help you every step of the way. Focus on what worked for you last time and be aware of what tripped you up.
The sooner you “get back on” the easier it will be. It is really easy once you’re off the wagon to stay off.
It’s easy to make excuses. It’s easy to say I’ll never get back to where I was. It’s easy to let that negative voice inside your head take over, but remember that every person that you look up to for whatever reason was once down.
However, the reason you even know their name is because they didn’t stay down. They got back up.
Rocky puts it best …
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