Showing Up

I am probably a bit of a sucker for this type of thing, but I have found the latest chapter of Atomic habits the most interesting so far.
He does talk about habit tracking which I did years ago and gave it away as I found it too discouraging.  Admittedly he does say it is not good for always but gives us some idea of how we are doing.  He was right for sure in that regard, as I found out I was not doing as well as I would have liked.  He does say it is good in that it helps keep us from lying to ourselves.  Many have an exalted opinion of themselves when it comes to this sort of thing and tracking stuff can be real reality check.
I really like when he talks about the most powerful form of motivation being success.  He then says something that I find to be a truism. “This can be particularly powerful on a bad day.”  He talks about the importance of just showing up.  He says lost days hurt you more than successful days help you. In relation to going to the gym he says bad workouts are often the most important ones.
I find this in life big time.  It is my conviction that it is hardest to do the right thing when I don’t feel like it.  When I do feel like it, it is easy.  The true test is doing something I know I should do when I least feel like it.  I feel that is just as significant to me as doing the right thing when it is easy to do.  As he puts it “going to the gym for 5 minutes may not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity.”
I guess this is why coaches often say we learned more from the loss that we did when we won.
It is what I do when I fail that counts.  He says my reaction is the distinguishing feature between winners and losers.  As he says “the first mistake is never the one that ruins you.  It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follow.”
I had a boss that would say one mistake was ok. If I continued to make the same mistake I had a problem.
I reckon that is true in life to.  Ok sometimes it takes me a while to get it, and for it to sink in, but as long as I am open it does sink in, and I can move on.