Save yourself by planning ahead
Alternate title: Plan ahead to stand a chance against the monkey mind.
The whole premise of this post is this. You're going to talk yourself out of many things that you need or have to do. For situations like that you should have a plan beforehand and systems in place.
The most recent example I can give is me going to the gym today.
I normally go on the afternoon after most of my heavy work is done.
But what happens is that sometimes I can get immersed too much into the work and forget to go and break a sweat.
What's more likely to happen is that I don't want to go. I don't "feel" like going so I will rationalize it by saying stuff like...
- I have too much work that I have to finish today.
- It's raining and the weather is too cold to go out.
- I haven't eaten enough through the day so I would have poor performance.
- There´s a super interesting webinar at that hour that I shouldn't miss.
I can go on and on with those excuses.
But really the only thing that matters is that I have to go and do my best at it. When I came back home, I can do any of the many tasks left.
And even in my current training plan, I'm being as time efficient as possible. So, there's no reason why shouldn't go.
That's why planning is important.
It saves the time and mental energy to decide if I should go or not.
The Sunday planning takes into account many things for the week.
Knowing that, when the time comes, I don't have to think. Just act accordingly.
If I planned to go before, then I will do it regardless of how I feel.