I hope you’ve had an amazing Christmas and got to spend time with your family and friends doing whatever brings you joy.
We’ve had a really chilled break and were lucky enough to have Christmas dinner, Boxing Day and another couple of meals all prepared for us, meaning we had a greater capacity to deal with the usual chaos that the Christmas season brings in our house.
You may have noticed that I haven’t written a message / blog / post for a couple of months. The only reason being, my brain was a bit fuzzy.
I didn’t feel worthy / good enough / interesting / like I had the right or authority to advise people on their health. Then it became a habit that I just didn’t continue to do.
We’re always really busy, as everybody is and I didn’t give myself time to focus on the things that I know help me focus. I did manage to find time to watch TV and doom scroll though.
I got caught up in comparing myself unfavourably to others in this health and fitness realm but mainly my past self. Comparing myself to my past achievements, my work, my relationships, fitness and skills.
And on the day that everybody is doing something similar and preparing to become a New version of themselves; I thought I’d write myself a message (these notes are always aimed at me and I share because I know they have helped others in the past) to remind me that I don’t need a New me.
I’m the best version of me there currently is, if I want to feel, move, do better, I simply need to do the things that help me do that.
It’s no surprise that I have been really slack on my journal, a daily reminder and task list of what I need to get done to move forward and highlighting my wins for the day. When use my journal daily, everything runs more smoothly in my brain.
It also makes me more consistent in the other habits that help my brain; cold dips, good nutrition, mobility sessions and breath work.
I’ve trained consistently over these past couple of months and credit that mainly to my mate Dean who turns up when I tell him we are training without fail. Without his commitment I would find other things to do instead.
And as I’m sure you can predict, consistency with a bit of discipline thrown in is the only way we achieve our goals.
I’m starting the year simply doing the basics consistently, journaling first and last thing, cold dips, good food and lots of mobility work to help my body recover from the years of abuse I’ve put it through.
I’ve set some time aside tomorrow to really focus on the goals I want to achieve over the next 3 months and tie those in to plans for the year.
I don’t need a new me and you don’t need a new you. We simply need to be kind and give ourselves the space, materials and care that help us thrive.
I’ll review my basics in these messages over the next couple of weeks.
Darren “just be” Checkley
