Beating The Slump: Why I’m Celebrating Small Victories

I’m going on vacation next week and could not be more excited.

As much as I love NYC, it starts to grate you on, especially during the summer. I don’t know if it’s the oppressive heat, the fact that everyone and their mother is in the Hamptons, or all the creepy dudes who feel the need to make lewd comments when you walk by, but summer in the city has a way of getting to me.

Even though my summer has been pretty low-key on the work front, I knew I needed to get out of the city for an extended period of time while also doing a bit of technology detoxing. Considering I’m going to grad school for social media, I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time attached to a screen this fall.

Jeremy and I weren’t able to plan a vacation together with his summer work schedule, so I’m going to Los Angeles to stay with my best friend from college. When in doubt, Los Angeles is always a good choice because I have a place to stay, a few friends there, palm trees make me happy and I have the most fun catching up with my bestie. The fact that Disneyland is there also doesn’t hurt.

So far my only plans are go to Disneyland (duh), maybe Universal Studios, eat all the vegan food and I really want to spend one day at the beach. Besides that, I’ll be relaxing, unplugging, reading a lot and visiting some new-to-me fitness studios plus some old favorites.

Since I’ll be focused on unplugging and I’m convinced the entire tri-state area is going to be on vacation as well, things will be quiet on the blog front next week and then I’ll catch you up on all things LA. Also be sure to check in on instagram (and instagram stories!) for all my adventures.

Beating The Slump: Why I’m Celebrating Small Victories

I wanted to chit-chat today about celebrating the small victories and why it’s SO important in fitness and just plain every day life.

As I mentioned above, the summer slump is starting to get to me and I’ve been feeling mucho unproductive. Lazy is not easy for me so whenever I don’t conquer all the items on my to-do list I feel super guilty. I’m sure I’m not alone, gotta love being Type-A and insanely driven.

I get caught up and paralyzed by the fact that I feel like I’m doing nothing. After being so go-go-go all year between marathon training, work, the GMAT and blogging, having all this free time has been really overwhelming. I both want to savor it but am also afraid of not utilizing this time while I have it.

The first step to getting out of a slump is admitting you are in a slump. Here’s how I usually know:

• Incurable writers block
• The things that usually inspire me (reading, listening to podcasts, blogging) aren’t leaving me inspired
• I feel overwhelmed for no reason
• It takes 10 times longer than usual to do a simple task
• I’m distracted by everything and can’t stay on task
• I feel bored during my workouts
• I’m not excited to work out (okay maybe that’s just me because I genuinely enjoy working out)
• Just simply not feeling productive.

It’s an icky feeling and can be really hard to shake. You don’t want t0 know how many hours I spent yesterday staring at the blank screen trying to write a blog post. And then I of course started getting frustrated by my lack of inspiration for said blog post. And then I get paranoid that I will have writer’s block for the rest of my life. Oy.

Instead of stressing out about what I’m not doing every day, I’ve been celebrating my mini victories every day. Simple things like I didn’t have a major meltdown when I had to get blood taken at the doctor (ugh, I hate needles!) or I finally called my credit card company after putting if off all month.

I’m usually SO focused on the big picture that I forget the small steps it takes to get there and sometimes you have to conquer the small, mundane things on the way.

 

This is also super important on the fitness front.

It can be really frustrating to work your butt off and not feel like you’re getting the results you want.

One of my favorite things about marathon training last year was that EVERY week felt like a huge accomplishment because I was covering mileage I had never hit before. That definitely hasn’t been the case for me lately on the workout front.

Instead of focusing on the big picture goals, whether it’s a weight loss goal, jeans you want to fit into again, half marathon PR you want to crush, or what have you, it’s also important to focus on the small fitness victories as well.

• Did you take less breaks today during your workout?
• Did you do one more push-up before dropping to your knees?
• Did you pick-up heavier weights?
• Did you hold crow pose for one second longer?
• Did you quiet your mind in savasana?

I challenge you to write these mini victories down every day before you go to bed. And pat yourself on the back because even if it doesn’t always feel like you’re being productive or reaching your fitness goals, small victories add up and small victories are worth celebrating as well.

 

Question: How to you get out of a summer slump?