That's the way it was with this roadblock. The Internet went down. Rather than making alternative plans, I waited in vain that it would be repaired. It was - the next day. A day behind.
So, I made plans to tackle what I missed the following day. Bam! Another roadblock. The same one actually. The Internet went down. I still hadn't formulated a plan to get me around, through, over my roadblock.
I do now.
However, roadblocks do happen. A lot are of my own doing, my own poor pre-planning. Mine haven't always been the Internet or myself though. Some of my roadblocks have come from well meaning friends and relatives. Some have come from work. Most do come from me Either I am not prepared to deal with the roadblock that interferes with my goals, or I create the roadblock.
Take losing weight as an example. Everybody has an excuse once October hits. We have to buy that candy for the Halloween trick-or-treaters, then it's in the house, in the kitchen and surprisingly (not really) it ends up in our mouths. Following on the heels of Halloween is Thanksgiving. When you look at a typical Thanksgiving meal, well, can you say carb-loaded? There are mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, rolls, turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. YUM!
Maybe we skate by Thanksgiving (go you if that's you!) and then we start right into the Christmas season. Christmas means a lot of baking and making of special dishes. Or there is Kwanzaa, or Hanukah. Or one of something like 30 holidays, holy days, special event days. We celebrate it all with food.
A wise person doesn't give in to the temptation.The wise person has planned ahead for these stumbling blocks, road blocks, detours that derail us from our intended purpose.
So, now, I have a plan to overcome an Internet crash. I have a couple just in case Plan A doesn't work. I can use the computer at one the local branches of the library; I can use my son's laptop at a Starbucks that has free Internet. I can have some of my blogs pre-written just in case the Internet crashes again. I'm sure I'll come up with more as need be.
But what about you? What alternate plans have you made to overcome the obstacle getting in your way? Remember, whatever the alternative, it should not cause any harm. Past that, you are your only limitation to providing multiple responses to your objective's roadblock.
That's not the only thing though that you should think of. Smart people, and you ARE one of those, right? Smart people know that life happens, things need to be taken care that may take your focus momentarily off your goal. Those smart people know life happens. When life happens, they don't let it push them off the path.
That's what happens when we feel bad, or guilty about not staying true to our goal. We push ourselves off our very own path!
A story is told about a plane flying form California to Hawaii. Between the pilot and the autopilot system, the plane is nearly always in a self-correcting mode. The pilot doesn't say, "Opps, I made a mistake, might as well give up." No, the pilot pays attention to the instrumentation of his dash board and either corrects the flight path or lets the computer course correct. He doesn't give up! What would happen if the pilot did that? The plane would never get to its destination. Eventually, it will run out of fuel and crash more than likely killing all on board.
We don't want to do that with our goals and dreams and projects. Okay, so we got waylaid. That is not meant for us to take our noble goal and dash it to pieces. We need to be kinder to ourselves and forgive ourselves so we can get back up on our feet and try yet again.
If we would continue to let go of the guilt we feel when we don't meet a goal, and learn how to deal with our roadblocks we'd be much happier and better off. We need to develop the "try, try again" philosophy and stop beating ourselves.
So, I made 24 days of my goal. I ran into a road block I wasn't prepared for. I'm prepared now. Now I start over again, and I don't quit because I missed a day. I pick myself up and move forward again, another day, another step at a time. That's what winners do - they get past their roadblocks.
