Climbing over the wall

There are five weeks left in 2015. Five! And, of all those goals I set out for myself at the beginning of the year, I’m failing. Miserably! But, that’s okay. The point of this blog is that I’m not perfect, just trying to be better.

So, I’ve hit a slump, and I need to find a way to get over it. Instead of beating myself up over it, I’m accepting the fact that I’m struggling and trying to find a solution.  I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly is my problem. I know I haven’t been motivated, but I’m not sure how to fix that. I know I’ve been struggling with self-control, but that is also hard to fix. 

Not that I’m not going to work on those things, but something tangible is much easier to focus on. I’ve started to examine my life, and tried to figure out what I’ve been having a problem with, that I can work on, and that’s tied to motivation and self-control. The answer I came up with is sleep.

When I stick to a consistent sleeping pattern, I get enough sleep, and I also tend to do a better job of taking care of myself. When I consistently go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day, I sleep better, I feel more rested and I feel more energized during the day. This, however, has not been the case for a long time. 

Instead, this past year, I’ve been going to bed at varying times. I’ve been getting up way later than I should be almost every day. On the weekends I allow myself to sleep in way too late. This only perpetuates the problems, because I then stay up late that night. 

Therefore, with five weeks to go in the year, here is my plan. Because there has to be a plan! Go to bed the same time EVERY night. Get up the same time every morning to work out before work on week days. Only allow myself to sleep in an extra two hours on the weekends. Now, I’ve read that you should only sleep in one extra hour on weekends, but I don’t know if I can do that, at least not at first. I think I will need to work up to getting up that early on weekends. 

When you are struggling, what do you do? How do you reboot and get back on track? I’ve hit a wall and I just can’t seem to get over it. Do you ever feel like this? How do you manage to finally find the strength to climb over? At the end of one of my favorite work out videos the instructor says, “Success is a routine.” I feel this speaks directly to me, but all year long I have been struggling to find that success. With five weeks left, I want to finish this year on a high note and get back into a routine!