Do it Anyway
It is a known fact that New Year’s resolutions fail.
In a culture that thrives and makes money off of telling you that you are imperfect and you need to be “fixed” - the New Year is an onslaught of messages that start off the calendar year making you feel worthless, hopeless and not enough.
That being said, there is some value in starting off the New Year with an intention or goal to tweak something, lose a bad habit, or change a pattern that you have wanted to change for years.
How do you find that magical middle ground?
You know…that place between “YES! I am ready to change!” ……..and not feeling like a piece of garbage because after about ten days you lose momentum and go right back to old ways/patterns/behavior.
40 days.
40 days to change.
What is magical about 40 days?
40 days holds significance from many places. In the kundalini yoga tradition, meditations start at 40 days to break habits and form new ones. In many different religions, 40 days is significant for prayer, fasting and in allegorical stories. Neurologically, 40 days of meditation has shown to positively alter brain structures.
In other words, 40 days is magical.
With any change in life…..when you are making any kind of lasting change, you are looking to rewire the neuronal networks in your brain. Resistance comes in because you are literally creating new grooves in the brain for new behavior.
ANY STEP in moving forward through the resistant days and continuing through to 40 days is the special sauce it takes to change.
Feel the resistance and do it anyway.
Let’s say you have an intention to meditate for ten minutes every day. You are moving forward, feeling strong, getting in the ten minutes and then two weeks in Bam! You lose focus. You can FEEL the resistance and despite the intent….you are heading back into NOT meditating.
What do you do?
Do it anyway.
Instead of ten minutes, do five. Three. One. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you did it anyway.
One more day towards 40.
Make ANY step towards the 40 days. It doesn’t have to look perfect. It doesn’t have to be ten minutes or nothing. Any step forward is a step towards the magic of changing something in your life.
Commit to one step. One. Single. Step.
One step towards 40.