Your New Strategy: View Things On A Spectrum

Here’s a familiar scenario I go through with a client:

Sunday – Friday Afternoon: Client is making goal-aligned choices 80-90% or more of the time (which is great).

Friday Night: Client has 3 slices of pizza Friday & no vegetables night and feels like they are “off track”, feeling negative and guilty and like they’ve just “undone” a week of goal-aligned choices. Client feels like the rest of the weekend is probably a wash and they might as well just wait until Monday to get back on track.

Here’s the mindset shift I suggest to my clients:

Get realistic about what the actual worst situation could have been, 3 pieces of pieces is not the worst things could have gone. Instead, think of that decision on a spectrum from best to worst. Realize that all is not lost and if you try to keep your choices in the middle to right side of the spectrum all weekend, you’ll feel great come Monday and like you can continue your momentum without any need to over correct to “make up” for the weekend.

Black and white thinking is one of the biggest limiters in your ability to change. We cannot be perfect 100% of the time. If the only options are fail or succeed, it’s going to be really hard to dig yourself out of the mental hold after each time you “fail”.

If you view things on a spectrum, it might be easier to talk yourself into making a slight adjustment to your Friday night dinner. It makes it worth it to add a vegetable or have a half slice of the third piece of pizza because you are valuing that push to right side of spectrum. It makes it easier to see that all isn’t “lost” if one meal doesn’t end up as aligned with your goals as you’d like.

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Is this a new concept to you? Do you often catch yourself in black or white thinking?

Give this a try and let me know if you find it helpful!