“Life is full of unforeseen detours. Circumstances happen which seem to completely cut across our plans. Learn to turn your detours into delights. Treat them as special excursions and learning tours. Don’t fight them or you will never learn their purpose. Enjoy the moments and pretty soon you will be back on track again, probably wiser and stronger because of your little detour.”
Steve Penny
Beyond the Quote (46/365)
In his book, Essential Zen Habits, Leo Babauta shares a mental analogy that can help you stay on track towards accomplishing your goals—or better yet, not stay on “track” at all yet continue heading in the direction of your goals in a more flexible, effective manner. You see, for many people, the idea of a plan gets equated to mental “train tracks” that get laid out so that you, the train, can power forward in a smooth, straight line down the track towards your destination.
In theory, this sounds good, right? You think into the future and come up with the ideal route based on the information you have and you lay metaphorical tracks out that will take you there in the fastest, most efficient way possible. The only problem, of course, is that even if you come up with the most researched, well thought out plan, life will still get in the way and disrupt your path. And when it does, your tracks will dismember and your train will derail and crash. Sound familiar?
What might be a better mental framework to follow then? Be water, my friend. Just as Bruce Lee discussed being “formless” and “shapeless” like water when it came to mental flexibility and combat success, the same should be true for how you approach goal achievement. Rather than imagining yourself powering forward down a train track, imagine yourself flowing like a small river down a mountain.
When the water from a river confronts a rock or a tree does it derail and crash? No, the water flows around the rock or the tree (or any obstacle for that matter) as though it had planned that route all along—and it keeps on flowing towards its destination smoothly. This is the power of staying flexible in your approach whenever you’re pursuing any goal or achievement. Because as appealing as a smooth ride down beautifully laid train tracks might sound, the reality is, your path to personal success is going to look a lot more like the chaos of the side of a mountain. And if we’re not flexible in our approach, we will crash.
How might we apply this in our lives? I’ll give you a recent, personal example. For exercise, one of my main goals is to complete four weight lifting sessions and two deep stretching sessions at a bare minimum every week. I find that getting these workouts done first thing in the morning is ideal for me and is the easiest way for me to get the job done week-to-week. But, sometimes life gets in the way.
I do my best to block out my time so that this doesn’t happen, but life always finds a way to mess that up. Sometimes I have to go into work earlier, or meet up with a friend, or go to a scheduled appointment, or sometimes I just feel really out of it. Rather than crash and burn my whole train of momentum, I stay flexible in my approach and adjust as though that was the plan all along. I move a morning workout to the afternoon; or I double up workouts the next day; or I move that workout to my “off” day and swap. This morning, for example, I did my Friday leg workout that I missed (because of a lack of sleep), plus my Sunday flexibility session in one—and I’m back around that obstacle moving smoothly down my mountain.
Some tips to keep in mind as you’re flowing into obstacles and challenges: First, keep your destination clearly in mind—remember why you’re doing what you’re doing and keep your resolve firm. Exercise is an integral part of my life and the routine I have devised has evolved over two decades—my resolve to get my workouts done is firm and unwavering. Yours should be too.
Second, don’t let the destination occupy so much of your mind that you’re missing out on the view of the present—try to enjoy the little detours along the way. Witness the miracle of your body working for you and exercising freely in space. Feel the pump that comes to your muscles as you challenge them, the satisfying feeling of sweat as it drips down your face, the tension that gets released when you finish a stretching session—all of this will turn your detour into a delight.
Third, never miss two days in a row. If you need to cancel a workout or action step, make absolutely certain that you don’t miss it again the next day. Missing one day is a hiccup; missing two days is the start of a new habit.
Finally, take yourself seriously. If you say you’re going to do something—do it. Follow through. That being said, be careful what you commit to! But once you commit, be committed. Because if you don’t take yourself seriously, why should you be able to accomplish any serious goals?
This post became the introduction for: 16 Leo Babauta Quotes from Essential Zen Habits and How To Master the Art of Change
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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