This week is the final week of the first version of the Lights Spreadsheet. I upgraded it, and will share the upgrades with you shortly after I hammer out the details.
This week, I want to talk about pragmatism and mantras.
First, pragmatism: I have a theory that I call The Theory of Rapid Repairs.
It goes like this:
Any system that you can't rapidly repair when it goes off track is worthless.
Worthless is perhaps strong. We could replace it with, "...is worth a heck of a lot less than it would be."
For instance, let's say you're doing a dietary or habit regime and you eat a piece of junk with breakfast by accident. Like, you get a free cookie with the coffee you order, and you eat it accidentally.
Some people, at that point, will say "ahh, I've screwed up my diet, damn it" — and will then go off the rails and start binge-eating junk food.
Don't laugh — it happens.
The idea of "I already screwed up, I guess it doesn't matter if I screw up really badly" is a common one.
Thus, one of the biggest predictors of how well you'll be able to reach long-term process-based goals (fitness, finances, creativity, entrepreneurship, etc) — is how quickly you can realize you're off track and fix things.
In Practice: Rapid Repairs
You'll note that on the 5th of July I marked "Half" for if I slept well... I slept a couple hours later than I wanted, but otherwise okay. On the 6th of July, I slept poorly — only 4 hours.
Predictably and unsurprisingly, the 7th was a disaster. Two days of not-enough-sleep in a row, and my habits start falling apart.
But note! July 8th is a partial recovery, and July 9th was an almost perfect day (right up until the end).
This comes from saying, "Ok, I know things will get off-track, how do I stabilize?"
It's much more of an art than a tactic. There's no single tactic to do it. But it comes from being able to detect that things are starting to fall off, and prioritizing stabilizing and rapidly repairing.
During a time when things are getting shaky, many people want to push harder.
Wrong!
Slow down, and make sure you go through the motions and process of doing things correctly. Repair the basic habits and process. You install process and habits because you know they'll support you in doing what you want. When you fall off them, get right back on them and make it a priority, moreso than raw production.
Mantra: "Hold the Line"
I've gotten a lot of mileage out of having little "mantras" — short phrases I can mentally repeat when things get tough.
One of them is, "Hold the line!"
You'll note on July 7th, I marked only "half" for eat healthy.
I happened to be given some candied nuts and dried fruit in the morning. Not thinking entirely clearly, I ate them and thus violated my dietary protocols.
The rest of the day, it was a great big temptation to eat more junk food. "Ah, I already screwed it up, I might as well..."
I don't know where those thoughts come from. They're counterproductive, certainly. But the mind will play games on you.
So I repeat to myself,
"Hold the line!"
Meaning, don't give in and go on a total binge.
It's remarkably helpful.
This is also why I have the "Half" marker for hitting habits, that's yellow. Binary Yes/No can sometimes be good and useful, but on a day that I ate a little bit of candied nuts (honey roasted cashews, to be precise) and dried fruit (two packs of dried cranberries) — that isn't a totally worthless day that's off the rails. Likewise, eating a little bit of bread that came with a meal... that'll kick a day off into "Half" for me, but not into the red light "No" of total failure.
In practice, when I sum up how many days I succeeded in a week, I count all the "Half" successes as 0.
So you'll see this week, on "Track Time," I have marked down 4x Green "Yes" and 3x Yellow "Half." What's the total for the week? 4.
I don't give myself any credit for days that are only halfway successes. But at the same time, it still helps me hold the line. I don't want to take the red light.
This is perhaps another reason why the Lights Spreadsheet is useful... it's very visceral to see the colors. Yellow doesn't give me any "points" at the end of the week, but it hurts a lot less to see than red lights. In a weird way, yellow is almost please: "hey, I screwed up a little bit, but I held the line."
Ok, that's this week. Please feel welcome to share your own Lights Spreadsheet for those in the readership who are doing it.
And remember — nobody has perfect adherence to their habits. Rapid repairs — and the plans and skill to make rapid repairs — are key for long-term success.
Oh yeah, and when things get tough —hold the line!