When You Should Be Doing The Right Thing But You’re Not

I just finished our chocolate reserves at home. And I know I’m going to be annoyed with myself later tonight, after dinner when I want to sit down with my favourite cup of tea and some chocolate.

But, I just really felt like it.

There’s a mischievous glee I take in being an adult sometimes. And eating all the chocolate I want is one of those times.

It’s the big kid inside of me who had to be sneaky, or ask first when I was little to have a “treat”, that now so excitedly knows I get to choose.

Last week I was talking about “the power of the pause” on an Instagram live. And the comment I made that got the most engagement was about, wait for it, chocolate.

I was sharing the difference between why there’s some changes in our life that happen really easily and others that we procrastinate forever, don’t have the energy to change, or we simply don’t do the thing.

Like why we don’t take a break from being so busy.

Things that we know are really really good for us that we still can’t bring ourselves to actually implement.

I gave two examples from my own life.

One being my relationship with chocolate right now. Could I eat less? Yes, sure. Do I tell myself sometimes to reduce my intake? Yep. So why isn’t it changing?

Because I really don’t want it to.

I like eating chocolate.

And I particularly love how good it tastes (my favourite flavours right now are sea salt and butterscotch) at the end of a long day with my cup of tea in hand.

While there’s a part of me that wants to reduce my intake a little, the other part of me is much bigger. It’s the part of me that’s simply enjoying what I’m doing. There’s not a big enough reason why I would change my habit, so that change isn’t happening.

The second example I shared was about my meditation classes. Before the stay home stay safe policies kicked in, I was attending at least one weekly meditation class at my favourite little haven here in London.

Some days I really really didn’t want to go. I was tired. Or on a roll with work and would have to stop my creative flow to get on the train. But I always made it to class. No matter what.

I know that no matter what kind of a day I’m having – whether I’m at my peak of energy, or stressed and frazzled – taking a pause to go and attend one of my meditation classes always makes me feel incredible.

My why for going is BIG. I know how it’s going to make me feel. So no matter how much I don’t want to tear myself away from the computer, I do.

Sometimes we don’t want to do the things that we know work really well for us. Like taking a break. Or switching off our phones. Or going for a walk in our lunch break.

And sometimes we really want to do the things that we know work well for us and yet we still get caught up in that busy cycle and before we know it, we’ve missed our chance for the day.

If you’ve found yourself not doing the things you know work for you then now could be a good time to get clear on your why.

And remember, your thing is your thing. Only you know what feels best for you. So keep checking in with yourself and what makes you feel good.