Think About Your Alternate Reality When You Feel Like Giving up on a Goal.
Sometimes the path to recovery or fitness can be fraught with bumps, obstacles and confusing intersections. It may seem easier to just throw away the towel because dealing with these dangers can be very difficult, but before giving up, try imagining an alternate reality to renew your motivation.
Let’s say you’re disappointed that the scale doesn’t reflect your many weeks of hard work after you eat and exercise better. You focus on the scale rather than noticing benefits such as improved mood and energy from healthier habits. This behavior is fairly common, but it can lead people to believe that nothing is working ( filtering, a type of cognitive distortion ) and give up. There is a better way to deal with these moments.
Try to think about your alternate reality in which you really give up and stop doing anything that is relevant to your goal. What do you think you will do instead and how will you feel in this alternate reality? Really think about it.
When I do this mental exercise, I often find that my alternate reality simply includes my previous self, wanting me to make changes and do the same thing that I do now, that is, I put in my daily work to achieve the goal that I originally set. Having realized this, I just know that I do not want to return to that old self, which only yearns for change, but has not yet taken any action. This usually revives my motivation to keep working.
Try it yourself. In the long pursuit of health (and life), there will inevitably be moments that will tempt you to give up, but thinking about an alternate reality can give you the distance you need from your emotions and help you survive.