Let me start by saying that the design and font nerd in me is geeking out about this beautiful font I just bought myself for Valentine’s day. It’s called Lucky Fellas and I mean wow, seriously how gorgeous is that?! The swash, the distortion! To take a line from Chris Traeger, It is literally the most beautiful font I have ever seen.

Okay enough design geek but in honor of this beauty I made this design into a desktop background! You can download right here  1024×768  1280×1024  1920×1080   so you can enjoy it and be reminded of this very true statement everyday. (Just click whichever resolution works for your computer, when it opens in a new window, right click and select download or save image.)

So it’s mid February. The time of year where the gym attendance goes back down. Where we start to slip a bit on our resolutions. Where, if you live in a place that gets snow in the winter, you are ready to hop on the first flight to anywhere with sunshine and warm weather. I love living in the northeast but man, the grey days get old right about now. It’s hard to stay motivated!

The excitement from the new year and the holidays has worn off and so has the initial energy we had to hit our goals. We are in what I like to call “The Sticky Middle”.

When we start a new project or goal, it’s super exciting. We are going to kill it!! (Karate chop’s the air with a high kick) F-ing A right! We have got this! It’s great! We are so motivated and ready to do this thing! But then we get tired and start making excuses. Or life happens and before we know it, weeks have gone by since we did anything to move towards our goal. So maybe we give up. I mean it’s been weeks right? We clearly can’t do it. Life is too hard, it’s too hard. This will never work. I will never change. I’ll just wait till next year so pass me those girl scout cookies, Damn it!

The Sticky Middle loooves to make excuses and get us to give up.

Do you know why? Because real change takes work and it’s not always pretty or fun. Real change is scary because you are trying to carve a new path for yourself and there isn’t always a clear road ahead. You may be trying to change life long learned habits and mindsets that aren’t willing to be easily changed. (Seriously, the girl scout cookies!) Or maybe you are trying to achieve something other people don’t understand or know how to support. It can be lonely on that road!

So here is what I’m here to say today. If you are finding yourself in the Sticky Middle and you find yourself stuck remember this… YOU choose your story. 

What I mean by that is this, your brain may be telling you all sorts of great reasons to give up, to stop, that it will never ever happen. But your brain is only right if you choose to believe it’s bull shit story. You are in control of your mind and as the great coach Jay Pryor says :

We all make up stories every day, consciously or unconsciously, about how things are going to go. In fact, that is where most fear and stress comes from. Our worry about what MIGHT happen. So the way to combat this is to ask ourselves 2 questions:

1. Is the story I’m telling myself true or not?
2. How can I change the story?

For example, so many people I know started 2017 off with a really bad cold that keeps coming back. Our house included. I have already used a good amount of sick days and it’s only February. Now, I could tell the story that 2017 started out really sucky and will probably be sucky the whole year if the start is any indication but, eww, who wants that?

So question 1) Is it true?
It’s true that I and my family have been sick and it’s true that I have taken sick days. It’s also true that being sick sucks but it doesn’t mean the whole year will suck.

2) How can I change the story?
Well, I can look and see that by being home with my sick kid, I got to start the year by spending more time with my family. Which is one of my highest values. I can also see that I started the year with more self-care because I got to relax and recharge while she napped. So really the year started out pretty good!

Do you see how that works? How you can choose your story? The Sticky Middle sucks but every minute or every day can be your New Year Restart simply by choosing what you believe about your story and yourself.

One rough day, week, month, doesn’t mean you should give up. In fact, when you want to give up, when things are the hardest, is the moment right before you are about to break through to the next level.  So choose your story. Every minute, every day. The sticky middle is only temporary and you are so close to where you want to go!

So tell me, what is your story? what do you believe? Hashtag it #thestoryIchooseis and let’s support each other in getting through the Sticky Middle.