A lot of people, maybe most people, try to make a big self-improvement push in their lives sooner or later.
They start eating better, or change how they spend and invest money, or whatever.
It keeps going for a while. There's progress. There's success. And then, the person falls off a cliff.
Why?
I'm now thinking it usually happens due to a convergence of bad events. That would be when a lot of little things hit you all at once, or a big thing hits when you're not in the best place to absorb the blow.
I don't have a grand unified theory on how to deal with it - actually, just recognizing and naming the phenomenon is new to me. I found that I often I succeed in my initiatives and improvement goals, but sometimes I fall off and they don't happen.
Why?
Convergence of bad events.
I set a bunch of new health goals recently. Most are going well and I'll write some posts on them. But I also tweaked my back at some point. I don't know when - martial arts? Carrying heavy stuff around? Otherwise being active?
So, I had to abandon some new stretches I was implementing, which was going to lead to a new strengthening program. If I was less busy, maybe I could modify and research more on how to improve the program. But I'm busy, my back isn't quite cooperating, and so I'm putting it off. If the next month goes very smoothly and nothing comes up, maybe I'll pick up the stretches and strengthening again. But maybe I won't, and in a year my physical regime won't be modified.
Hmm.
So, okay. People frequently get off track due to a convergence of bad events.
The solution, once you realize you've been off-track, is to just get back on as soon as you can.
But there's probably a deeper point somewhere about preparing and being ready for it. Like, set your goals and instead of having a smooth upward line to success, plan for a bunch of bad things to converge randomly at some unknown time.
It'll probably happen. That's not being pessimistic or fatalistic - of course, we should aim for the best, improve things, and fight against bad things happening. But occasionally, you'll get hit with a bunch of bad things that would have been manageable individually, but are a really tricky at the same time.
Hmm. I wonder if it would be possible to have presence of mind in the first day or two of a converge hitting you, and to write down everything you working on, how it was going, and what it was like? Maybe it'd be possible to use that like a manual for getting back on track things clear up.
Interesting stuff. Okay, convergence of bad events often gets people off track. Plan for it. Get back on track as soon as you realize you've been off track is the only remedy I know. But maybe there's some way to recognize when it's happening and take some precautions against totally falling off in the goals.
Thoughts and input very welcome.