The other day I was perusing Instagram and came across this post on balance. It got me thinking.

Drop the weight of balance and see how you feel. It is exhausting trying to be balanced all the time. Rest? Train? Self Care? Work? Keep up the house? Something has to give and to be perfectly honest, it is usually self care, rest, or keeping up the house. My whole life is sleep (barely), train (daily), track (all day every day), and work (feels like daily ha).

So not everything has to be perfect. I can prioritize rest when I feel like it is needed. I can take a rest day but I need to decide exactly what that means to me. Right now, it means I will show up for the daily workout but only give 60-70% effort on my “rest” day. One day, it may mean a walk instead of a workout. On the weekends when I am not at the office, I should prioritize more self care, but I have to decide what “self care” truly means to me. A nap? Journaling? Spa?…What do I truly want from my weekend? It can be different every weekend!

I’ve been so caught up in what I should do…I’ve neglected to decide what I want to do. And what I want out of life will actually determine what I should be doing…not some societal expectations of what I should want.

Here’s to deciding what we want and going after it.

What do YOU want? And how are you planning to go after it?

The post Is Balance Truly the Best Way? first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.

Showing up is half the battle

Picture Monday morning. Your alarm clock is blaring. Instead of jumping out of bed, you hit “snooze” and roll over for 9 more minutes of glorious sleep. (Why it is 9 minutes and not an even 10, I’ll probably never figure out). That alarm blares again in what FEELS like 2.5 seconds. On autopilot, you keep “snoozing” until you miss your opportunity to execute your perfect morning routine. You might even end up late for work and your whole day is thrown off.

Discouraged, you decide to ‘take the day off’ and start fresh tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day, you tell yourself. I’ll do better. Except, tomorrow ends up in much the same way, and the week snowballs until you have woken up late every day and the ‘snooze’ button is your new best friend. It is so hard to start again once you get off the rhythm of making sure you are up at the time you want.

Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.

Ken Poirot

One day last year, I decided I wanted to build better tomorrows. Therefore, the snooze option on my alarm had to go. Now I get the joy of waking in a panic 10 minutes before my alarm, in fear of missing it.

But, I don’t miss it. I get up…get my routine started…and show up daily. My days are infinitely better than they would be if I didn’t.

What is your WHY?

If you don’t know why you are waking up…why would you do it? I wake up to see my friends. And save some of them a spot when they might be late. Which, let’s face it, is often. The latecomers know who they are!! Repeat: COMMUNITY is why I get my lazy behind out of bed every single day. I don’t think I would leave my house for a sweat sesh if it was just me there.

Side note: as I have gone back to work, my community has changed a bit–it has grown! I know I will see the ‘regular’ 6 am crew on my days off when I can work out later, but the “Done Before Dawn” group also became my community during the past year when I went back to the office full time. Changes and adjustments happen. Find your tribe and keep adding to it.

What gets YOU out of bed in the morning — or, what gets YOU to a workout in the evening? Find that motivation, and remember it. If you miss a day, if you sleep in accidentally, so what? Either get it done later or start again tomorrow.

But never miss a Monday. Monday sets the tone for the rest of the week. You got this.

MONDAY IS YOUR DAY.

The post Never Miss a Monday first appeared on Sore Not Sorry.