The Road Where Your Expectations and Actions Meet
First let’s start with defining expectations. According to the Oxford Dictionaries Expectation can be defined in two different ways.
“a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.”
“a belief that someone will or should achieve something”
We are constantly having some type of expectations on our day, those around us, and even for ourselves. If your life is anything like mine you will see that those expectations are rarely what occur. Especially with family outings. For instance: We planned a family outing the other day and we left the house right at nap time, the lunch place we picked was closed, AND then our car broke down.
Not exactly the ideal Sunday Funday.
If you think about your fitness and wellness at all then I am going to guess that you have some sort of expectation about how you will see your health improve, how smoothly it will go, and how motivated and successful you are going to be.
Again, if you’re anything like me, you may have fallen short of your own expectations. I for sure have a time or two.
But Why? Why can we be so excited and sure of our next move to change our health that we end of falling short?
One reasons could be because your expectations and reality and actions are not lining up.
Having expectations when you are making such a big change in your life is important. It’s important to hold yourself to a standard. To have a strong belief in yourself. What could be better than that!
However, you need to be honest about your starting point, your season of life, your time, and your commitment. I am not in a place of life where I can commit to a one hour gym session across town every 4-5 days a week.
I have about 30 minutes a day that I need to make work in my house. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when I go to create a program or make a plan. Then I need to work with my own circumstances.
The next part of this is having your expectations align with your actions. It’s not enough to have a plan that fits your life, you then have to have actions that go with that plan. Change doesn’t happen without actions.
Let’s break down an example:
You want to get into a consistent of routine of working out 5 days a week
You work from 9-5 and you take your kids to school at 8:00am and everyone is home by 5:30
You then value making dinner and spending quality time with your kids until 8:00 pm when they are all (hopefully) asleep.
Chances are you are ready for work and your kids are up getting ready about 7:00 am in the morning
This leaves a limited amount of time. You want to begin valuing your health more by moving your body more consistently, but you also value that time with your family.
Here is how you have to think about your situation:
It is very doable to get your workouts in
There may be days that it doesn’t happen because life is happening around you but 4-5 days is a goal you can stick with
You do not have time to do workouts at a gym away from home unless you are getting up at 4:00-5:00am
You don’t want to get up at 4:00 am because you value sleep and some nights aren’t as smooth
You CAN get up about 5:00 or 5:30 am and commit to a 30 minute workout in the mornings before the day begins at home.
Here are your action steps to align with these realistic expectations:
Have your clothes ready the night before
Set your alarm
Have Water ready to go
Have your workout already planned
Start with Day 1
I hope the break down above helps it all make a little more sense about how your expectations and actions can come together. Adjusting your expectations, understanding your reality and aligning your actions isn’t a way to doubt yourself or sell yourself short. It’s about finding ways to help you be successful and take steps that lead you to life and health that you are trying to achieve.
Thank you for being here <3
RK