I was tired this week and a few times had a fear that I was actually not better and that I really did have chronic fatigue. By Wednesday I was so tired I had to block my diary off and take a nap. Not a regular occurrence for me pre- cfs. I was relieved to hear that my regular swimming partner felt the same as me and we had both swum that morning in very hot conditions. I was placated temporarily until I had a sore throat the following evening and started quietly freaking out again. I took some tablets as precaution and tried (unsuccessfully) to get an early night, but I woke up feeling ok on Friday and after a much needed sleep in on Saturday was back to being 100% again! Phew!
This last week I had the privilege of celebrating many of my friends various achievements as well as the fact that I bought a new car! The celebrations ranged from winning major races, achieving personal bests, moving into a new home, getting through a regular week of deadlines, getting fit and buying a new car. I was having dinner with a few close friends on Saturday in a friend’s new home and we were celebrating all the big and little things our friends and us had achieved just that week.
As I reflected on the week and the build up to getting my car and the breakthrough in my health, it dawned on me that none of these successes happened overnight. They all came through hard work and sacrifice. Some of those sacrifices were small day to day decisions to save that little bit extra, to eat right, to get up and train because you had committed to it or to sleep in and skip a session because your body needed the recovery, others were bigger, like missing your best friends 40th so you could go on a work trip to increase your chances of selection for the Olympic team next year, or missing regular late nights having fun with mates because you had to get up and train the next day or working through your only daughters school holidays so you can put her through school.
Regardless of these sacrifices, they all resulted in success. Some of them are an ongoing process and others need to be redefined, but they have all required daily decisions to keep focused on the outcome without enjoying the journey. Some of them crept up on us and surprised us, while others took major discipline and a lot of grunting and groaning on the way.
As a health professional I deal with gradual changes on a daily basis, I know that to get from A to B it takes daily, consistent work to change a habit, create a new one and to chip away at the daily grind. Often we don’t realise we are making progress until someone stops us and says- well done- you’ve been working towards that for over 2 years and now you have it, or all of a sudden you can do those 10 pull ups you have been trying to do for 8 months.
It is the little by little, day to day decisions that will determine the outcome and one day, you will look back and see the results of months and years of hard work pay off in your child graduating from university or your business become self sustainable, or getting that new car or swimming across a channel.
What is your one good decision to ‘little by little’ tick that box?
A friend of mine has a motto for 2015- ‘just one good decision’ as we make one good decision, usually more will follow. What is your one good decision to ‘little by little’ tick that box?
For me right now, it is consistency in my training and slowly, weekly making gains in he water that at the time don’t feel significant but this time next year I can look back and see the results of my ‘one good deciosn, little by litte.’