Have you ever fallen behind for whatever reason? I have. Truthfully, it happens more often than I'd like to admit.
Being behind puts me into a tailspin. I hate chaos. I like order. I like knowing what's done and what's left to do. When that doesn't happen, my mind starts making deals with itself.
I tell myself, "Tomorrow I'll make up for everything I didn't get done today, plus everything that's already on tomorrow's list."
So now I've turned one bad day into two days' worth of work.
Before tomorrow even gets here, the anxiety starts because I already know I'm facing double the workload. Then another lie slips in.
"It's okay. I'll catch up by the end of the week."
Then the end of the week comes, and I'm still behind.
Eventually I tell myself, "Well...maybe it doesn't really need to be done anyway. I'll figure something else out."
Sound familiar?
Here's what I've learned.
Most of the stress isn't because we're behind. It's because of the lies we tell ourselves after we get behind.
We convince ourselves we have to catch up all at once.
We convince ourselves we're failing because we missed one day.
We convince ourselves we're too far behind to even try.
None of those things are true.
The truth is, you don't have to do everything today. You just have to do the next right thing.
One task.
One phone call.
One paragraph.
One workout.
One step.
Progress isn't made by trying to erase yesterday. It's made by choosing not to waste today.
If you're behind, stop trying to catch up with your entire life.
Just restart where you are.
Because the biggest lie isn't that you're behind.
The biggest lie is believing you can't move forward because you are.