I was gearing up for my 100th Peloton ride one morning and I had it all planned out and was ready and super excited but then... My brain had something else in store for me that morning. It was like a dam has been broken and a rush of excuses came flooding in.

 

Excuses like, "You are tired", "You don't need to do your 100th ride", "It's not really that important to you", "You can always do it tomorrow."

 

Does this ever happen to you? Have you ever noticed that the closer you get to your goal, the more your brain tries to backpedal? This is because growth is uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable because you've never been here before. You've never been this version of you and because the pressure of growing starts to come up, your brain starts to freak out.

 

And this is exactly what happened to me that morning.

 

If you’ve had a day like this recently, know that you’re not alone. This is not something that's unique to your brain and your mindset only. This is what happens to all of us.

 

So, here's how it goes: When we make progress and work towards goals, our brain is not going to automatically be like, "Yeah, I've got this, I've got you. I'm going to be your biggest cheerleader."

 

We actually can't count on our brains to do that. It really helps though, to understand that it's something that we can choose to resist or embrace, that our brain is going to play those tricks on us. 

 

WHEN SHIT GOES SIDEWAYS... how do you cope? Are you like a GPS that can easily recalculate or do you quickly feel derailed and struggle to get back on track?

 

It could have been easy for me to throw in the towel and succumb to what my mind was telling me to do, but I chose not to. Instead, I worked hard to navigate the turbulence in my mindset and I invite you to do the same. Here are some ways I did:

 

😭 Take a boatload of deep, cleansing breaths. (It helped with the waves of strong emotions that kept comin’ at me.) 

😭 Adjust my expectations. (The day didn’t HAVE to go as originally planned in order to be a success.)

😭 Redirect my attention to gratitude. (What a gorgeous day, beautiful ocean, kids having a blast, delicious peanut butter coffee... 😋)

😭 Reset my mindset. I kept saying to myself: I CHOOSE how I react. I CHOOSE how I respond. I CHOOSE how I experience this day.

😭 Give myself permission to feel. I experienced a 🌈 of emotions and they were all legitimate. So I let myself feel them and move THROUGH them instead of getting stuck IN them.

 

Know that you’re not alone and there’s no right or wrong way to experience it. You do you- just remind yourself that you can choose HOW you experience it. That part is in your control. 💗