The other day, a thought occurred as I walked to work: achieving anything in life has a lot to do with your attitude.
Twelve months ago today, March 11, 2020, the WHO (World Health Organisation, not the band) declared we were, in fact, in a worldwide pandemic. My life changed as it did for many thousands of other people. My oldest son came home from Melbourne; he couldn’t pay his rent because the travel industry went belly up. He hadn’t lived here for many years, so changes were made to accommodate the couple of weeks which changed into the few months that he stayed. My casual hours of work stopped as uncertainty hit my boss’s business. My daughter stayed home now 6/7 of days working from home.
My children love to cook, so of course, what do you do during a pandemic? Cook and eat. As a result, I put on a few extra kilos over the course of six months, and it stayed on.
I’ve worked at getting those kilos off my body, but not hard enough. It was hard to exercise at home. We set up a small home gym, but the heart wasn’t in it. Hubby and I joined a gym recently close to home, but to be honest, it’s a boring gym. There are no classes, so no fun. See that attitude right there? This is what I’m talking about.
At the beginning of March, I started the Cancer Council’s March Charge with a group of friends. Goals are set for what you want to achieve, and between us, we shared our plans to achieve our goals. Immediately I had and still have a purpose to walk off some of those kilos and at the same time raise some funds. I feel happier to be doing something. I now walk the long way to work, turning a ten-minute walk into a thirty-minute walk, then return the same way. I have lost one kilo, but I know that I will lose more over the next couple of weeks.
The change of attitude has lifted my enthusiasm to write. There were a couple of weeks in February where I didn’t achieve my word count for the day. Things stepped in my way, and I couldn’t budge around them to sit and write. As weeks passed, the word count grew at a snail’s pace…you get what I mean? I know every word counts, but the longer you leave it, the harder it is to sit down and write. Don’t even mention the procrasti-editing to get me back to where I left off in the story.
The same goes for anything you want to achieve. Whether you’re writing, painting, exercising…if you can find something that helps you change your attitude, it’s amazing what you can achieve. And you know what? Even if you don’t achieve your ultimate goal, if you get halfway there, then that’s good too.
With the new spring in my step, my enthusiasm to write has returned. This morning I added 1100 words to my first manuscript’s word count. Yesterday, I added 744. I’m on my way.
The walking challenge: I have set myself a goal of 110kms in 31 days. So far I have walked almost half; I’m on target.
For me, a positive attitude is usually achieved by setting goals. They don’t have to be life-altering. Simple goals are easy to achieve…it’s not cheating. The more goals I achieve, the higher I can raise the stakes. If I happen to achieve higher than the goal, even better. Time for a happy dance.
One goal achieved, improves attitude, makes me walk faster, makes me write more.
If you’ve set goals for yourself…good luck. You’ve got this!