By Good Morning! As I sit here writing this morning I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written this topic in my planner in different variations. Even my prompt to write this post “Blog: Restart Topic” has been moved for weeks.
“Day One!”
“Restart”
“New Me”
“Start Over”
“START TODAY”
It’s amazing how the things that make us feel so good can be so hard to stick to. I think healthy habits are the things I restart the most. I have held off on writing this as I’ve felt like it was a lie when I haven’t restarted my own journey lately.
Restart is a dirty word to some. They may view it as I failed so I have to restart. Often a restart is taken with so much less fire than the first attempt. What if we changed our view? What if restart instead was a positive trigger?
For me restarting is a sign of strength, of perseverance, and determination. I’ve restarted my health journey, my writing career, and my outlook on life more than a dozen times each. I’ve gone days where I just did the bare minimum to get by because I just didn’t have it in me to press start. But guess what? I did press it.
Each restart came with more grace. Each restart came with more rest. Each restart came with more knowledge of what it takes to keep me moving forward. That doesn’t mean that each journey lasted longer. I’ve worked out for three weeks and then three days. I’ve written for a month straight and then just three times in a week. It doesn’t mean I didn’t fail in less time, it just meant I knew I could press restart. I know that one time I’ll press restart and it will be a long time before it’s pressed again.
One of the things I think I’ve lacked the most in my journeys before is rest. I feel I have to go full speed or else I’m not really on the journey. Yesterday was a restart for me. I ate healthy, I worked out, I cooked a healthy dinner (THAT BOTH KIDS ATE!!), and I got my butt to bed by 9:30. You know what I also did? I rested. I sat and read. I gave myself time to veg out and watch another episode of that show I’ve watched four times already.
The important thing is I didn’t beat myself up for not using that time to walk in circles to hit 10k steps. I didn’t criticize myself for not hitting all of the healthy habits I could have. In the past I would have, and by missing that 10K steps I would have chalked it up as just an okay day. And judging yesterday as okay would have put unrealistic expectations on myself which would have caused me to fail. My house has literal buckets of candy in it right now from Halloween. Give yourself grace. Viewing a day as successful when it wasn’t perfect is necessary. It keeps you going. And guess what? Those “perfect” days will happen.
I feel the answer to my restarts has been the ability to have rest-art. Sure I made that up. However, the ability to see the beauty in rest is so important to any journey. I could have stayed up late last night and worked on my book. I could have taken more time to clean the house. I could have walked in circles until my wrist buzzed telling me I had hit 10K steps. But I didn’t. I didn’t and I’m okay with that. Rest is so important! I can’t restart each day if I used up all my energy trying to reach perfection. I won’t get very far if I am constantly focused on going and not giving myself the opportunity to rest.
So today I’m continuing on from yesterday’s restart. It’s not yet 7:00 am here and I’ve read, written, and not eaten any Halloween candy 🙂 That’s success on my journey. And later today when my toddler asks if we’re going to work out I’ll tell her yes. And when we’re done I’ll give myself time to rest.
There is beauty in the restart. There is beauty in rest.
Have a blessed day!
E. A. McComas 