Year______ Month_______Day______Consecutive Practice Days_____Missed Days______
Day 54
I wouldn’t expect that here on day 54, that you would have 54 Consecutive Practice Days. If you do, shoot me a message at LoveAllYourLife.com. I’m impressed!
For the rest of us, consistency is just like our Vision; we’re striving not for perfection, but for the right trajectory.
So what do we do when the wheels fall off of our Practices?
It’s easy to say, “just start again”, but the loss of momentum can feel defeating. So here are some things I’d like you to consider: (I think I’m going to post this on my desk to remind myself!)
- Falling off the wagon is not a defeat. It’s just another form of feedback. Good results, bad results, and no results are all equally important heuristics to consider. The Lyceum Method is about learning from experience, and the lack of experience is an experience! Use this wonderful opportunity to examine what took you away from your practice. Cultivating this sense of wonder about it can help turn the emotional aspect around and make it that much easier to pick up your Daily Practices once again.
- Re-starting is a skill. If you have a gap in your Practices, that’s to be expected. So this is a fantastic opportunity you have to develop the skill of getting back on track. The sooner you pick up on your Daily Practices, the easier it will be to do it again the next time you get distracted. Each time you shorten the time between distraction and re-focussing, you are improving on this invaluable skill.
- Whatever you’re feeling is fine. Discouraged? That’s fine. Angry? That’s fine. Embarrassed? That’s fine. I’m not saying it’s pleasant, but what does that matter? Learn to sit with your emotions and just observe them, knowing all the while that this too, shall pass. Just like motivation and excitement are not constants, neither is discouragement or distraction. Emotions come and go. The sooner you pick up your Journal practice the sooner you can move on to feeling victorious once again, but it’s fine to acknowledge the “negative” emotions and take some time to observe them for their temporary nature.
- Don’t assume that this will never happen again. Of course, it will happen again. By acknowledging this, we can begin to formulate a plan for next time. Knowing that there will come a day in the future when you’ll be distracted and miss a day or two of practice (or more), begin to formulate a strategy for getting back on track faster the next time. This is where a coach, mentor, or mastermind group can be incredibly valuable. Spouses and friends may mean well, but they’ll often let you off the hook, or you may resist getting coached (especially by your spouse!) A paid coach or mentor, or a support group of like-minded people are better accountability peers. That’s why I’ve created The Lyceum Community. But regardless of your strategy, have one. Plan your strategy for getting yourself back on track while you are on track. Once you’re distracted the next time will be too late. You need to have a plan while you’re still moving and grooving, so that the next time the music stops, you’ll know what to do. If it doesn’t work, go back up to point #1 and try again. Remember…
…it’s all practice.
Gratitude: (Spend a few moments writing about the things you’re grateful for. Lined pages are on the PDF below)
Vision: (Write out your vision for the future you want to live. Lined pages are on the PDF below)
Affirmations: (Write out 1-5 affirmations of who you want to be. Lined pages are on the PDF below)
Action: (Write out one simple action step you can take today that brings you closer to your vision Lined pages are on the PDF below)
Daily: (The pdf version below contains three lined pages for your daily journal)
NOTE:
The above is an excerpt from the upcoming The Lyceum Course Journal. We will be releasing it here for free as a Daily Prompt blog post. If you would like a physical copy, we will link to it here once it is released.
Suggested Use:
I realize a daily journal prompt on a blog is a little weird. This is how I would suggest using it: Open your favorite note-taking software such as Evernote, copy and paste this post into it, and write your daily entries there.
OR
Download a PDF version of this post here. Feel free to print it out, or access it through a PDF editor where you can type in your daily entry.
Collaborate With Me!
This post series is a first draft of the future book. If you have suggestions, comments, or see errors, please reach out so that I can make the final product more valuable for you and the rest of the community. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
