It’s not what you do some of the time, but most of the time that counts.

Notice I didn’t say ALL of the time. 

We have this vision of how it all could be, when everything fits together and we do everything we say we will. At first, when the motivation is high, we feel like we’re crushing it. But then temptation, laziness, other priorities creep in and the work starts to fall off. The negative internal talk starts to flare up and we wonder why we dared to start in the first place. 

This negative feedback loop is infuriating. We know we can do better, so why don’t we?

Most of us stumble because we fixate on perfection. It’s all or nothing. Believe it or not, these two paradigms are easier (the all or the nothing). It’s the middle that’s tricky. But, sustainability and success reside in the middle, with the things that you do MOST of the time, not the things that you do SOME of the time. 

When I was playing professional soccer, I lived in Sweden in a small town called Uppsala. Coming from America it was such a refreshing culture shock where the overarching cultural aspiration was moderation. And I don’t mean this in a derogatory way. The Swedes embraced the idea of ridding the middle in all things - wealth, temperament, health, relaxation, status. In the background everything just hummed along without the need to compete or take charge at breakneck speed (not so great in some aspects of life, but magical in most). And the result was sustainability. 

Here, we do the opposite. We decide that we want to improve an aspect of our lives and we charge full speed ahead like a race car on fire. It’s no wonder we burn out. 

To win the game you don’t have to score every point. You just have to have more than the other team. You don’t have to hop on your mat everyday, you just have to hop on more times than you don’t. If there are seven days in a week, take four of those and put them to better use than the three. Pay attention to how you spend your time and how much focus you give to your goals. The trick to moving forward is to devote more time to the useful stuff than the alternative. 

This means you don’t have to be perfect, but it also means that you don’t have an excuse to give up. If you have a rough day, acknowledge it and then have a better one tomorrow. Resist the urge to be so critical of yourself. Again, if the goal is to be “average” then there’s no need to be perfect. If you can sit in that sweet spot where things are sustainable then over time you will be anything but average (insert irony). 

So have your treat meal, take your vacation, splurge on something fancy for yourself SOME OF THE TIME, because MOST of the time you’re so dialed into your daily habits that the benefits of your hard work will remain even when you alter the program. 

To create a weekly habit, join our monthly series with new classes each week and shorter homework flows to pair with your fitness. Hit me up if you have questions. Thanks for reading. Enjoy this day. Talk soon friend.

Until the next time, 

A-