So earlier this month we talked about having a simple default system or gameplan to fall back on when things get overly busy. Did you have a chance to formulate a plan?
Here in Mindset Matters we talk a lot about watching our thoughts. This is because everything we do, every choice we make, all of our behaviors happen downstream of what we’re thinking.
When we think thoughts like:
It’s been such a long day, I’m exhausted and I’m hungry. I don’t have any groceries in the house. I’m too tired to cook.
It’s really hard to change the direction and outcome of these thoughts when we don’t have a few tricks up our sleeve.
While the best success will be achieved by creating solutions that are custom-made for you and your likes and dislikes, I can give you a few suggestions or examples.
If we give it a few minutes thought, we can decide ahead on a few of the basics:
Am I attempting to curb my hunger at my weakest spot in the day? How could I stay more hydrated during the day? What is a slightly healthier choice at each of my favorite restaurants that I can lean on when my plans change?
Having a healthy go-to emergency snack food I keep in my purse has saved me over and over. So has keeping extra water in my car, and a chosen-in-advance healthier option or strategy for restaurants that are convenient to my daily schedule. I don’t have to choose these every single time, but I have worked up to most of the time.
If we think we can wait until we are overly tired, overly hungry or underprepared, we know this will be an uphill battle in the moment, and it’s much harder to bring that higher level thinking back online.
Just a handful of simple decisions made ahead of time can go a very long way. We must begin with the basics.
Let’s decide today and be ready.