I hit the wall on Wednesdays.
Are there times when you hit “the wall”? That invisible obstacle that comes up and smacks you down when you least expect it?
In the Army, you have to complete an obstacle course, which requires you to climb over or traverse a wall. I couldn’t understand why doing this was important, until later, when I found myself crawling over fences and in windows and around other obstacles to get to your target.
I later learned that those kind of obstacles are everywhere, even if they exist in your mind.
So as I encountered my wall, I needed to figure out what I could do to overcome it.
Do you have a wall that you hit? An obstacle that trips you up unexpectedly?
What is it? Where does it exist? When does it happen?
Take time to become more aware of that obstacle that stands in your way.
Why does it happen?
Sometimes it’s because we are tired, or our minds tell us to just give up, or we just decide that we have had enough
But, deep down we know that we could go farther
I decided that I would develop a plan in place, so when I noticed that the wall was about to get in my way, I would know what to do.
I had to first be aware of what happens and when it happens. I run out of energy. Usually this happens on Wednesday.
I hit the ground running on Monday, I’m moving and grooving on Tuesday, but then Wednesday comes…and I’m out of gas. I hit the wall.
Instead of getting lost in why this happened I decided to focus on what I could do. I made a plan. I decided that I would get out of bed and work out on Wednesday mornings, no matter what. I decided that I would not dread Wednesdays.
I started looking out for Wednesdays. I knew that was where my wall existed and I knew that I could conquer it.
When Wednesday hit, as expected, I would wake up not feeling like doing anything. I didn’t want to get out of bed, I didn’t want to work out, I didn’t want to do any work. I didn’t want to.
But guess what? There are lots of times and lots of days when we don’t want to. But the target is still there, to be achieved. The goal still exists. I don’t want to say that we have to, or we need to, or worst of all, that we should.
We have to remember why we wanted to do this in the first place. We have to remember why.
And this is the point at which you implement your plan. My plan was to work out no matter how lazy I felt.
My plan was to complete certain tasks no matter how much I told myself that I didn’t want to. But to do them in shorter increments, instead of trying to sit and tackle a bunch of stuff at a time. Then give myself a break: get up, and go get some fresh air for a few minutes.
So what’s your wall? What is the pattern that leads to your wall? Does it occur on a specific day? Does it happen at a specific time of day?
Start creating a plan. Just a few small steps that you can implement, so that you can start chipping away at that wall.
You don’t have to try to knock it all the way down the first time. You don’t have to knock it all the way down the second or third time. Or the tenth time.
But if you work at it, brick by brick, before you know it, the wall will be knocked down, and you will be moving even faster towards your target.