StacyCelia.com

I’ve written before about my tendency to overdo or under-do pretty much anything that impacts my mental health. Too much sleep (lazy and unproductive), too little food (inevitable binge eating session(s), diet down the drain), too much socializing (exhaustion, low funds), too little socializing (isolation)… I wrote about the importance balance just recently. Today I realize that my past efforts were sincere, but my approach was overall counter-productive. The fact that I am feeling so balanced today, despite my empty unemployed days, demands that I take a closer look to understand what is different this time around…especially given that I have as many hours in the day to mess up as I need. After careful consideration, I have a theory! Read on…

I have been working diligently on my mind and body. I have purposely not measured my progress on paper (perhaps I would become obsessive), nor have I ignored all of my “bad” temptations (pizza once every two months won’t kill anyone). Instead, I have pushed myself when I feel flat and rested when my body cried for a break. Today, when I least expected it, I hit one of my goals - I ran a mile in under ten minutes.

This may be a walk in the park for most people, I have no idea, but for me it is an accomplishment. I started running just two or three weeks ago. Five minutes here, another five there…And then today, after I had completed step class, I promised myself that I would run five minutes. It turned into ten before I realized it (thank you Aerosmith and ‘The View’) and just like that, I reached one of my fitness goals.

I have no doubt it is a direct result of the perfect ratio between pushing myself and rewarding myself. Formerly it was punishing myself and way, way overly rewarding myself. If I could jar up my current mentality and save it for a rainy day, I would. I’d sell it. This may be the first time I have ever felt so (can I say it again?) BALANCED in this context.

It’s when I stop focusing so much that the pressure alleviates and results manifest. In grade school they used to tell me to look at the big picture to understand, “stop focusing so much on the small details.” It seems I’ve learned a lot about my personal success by doing the same thing.

PS - To my detriment, I have always been a fan of instant gratification. It turns out that slow and steady actually does win the race. And to think, I have only just entered the marathon. Oy.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 6:33 pm and is filed under And even the kitchen sink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.