Rest, not Reversal

So, it's been a busy time in our household, and so we have been LOVING our weekends. But we noticed a trend that got me on to the keys this weekend, to give a brief but powerful #SaturdayServing to help make the weekend a powerful part of your week...

So... what do you use your weekend for?

For people over the world it's their favourite time of the week... They hate their Mondays because it heralds the end of their weekend, and love Fridays as it triumphantly heralds those magic special days prized as weekends for us in this part of the world.

We use it for so many things, and many fall into one of three categories:

• Rest Up - with a bustling business and a growing family - weekends are for resting at the moment. I am able to sleep a little later, go a little slower and fill it with more feel good things... but chilling is a high priority for me over the weekend - especially given the moving at 100mph that goes on during my week
• Catch Up - things can get away from us in the week, and so we use the time to catch up on what we've missed (each other, facts or friends). We use it powerfully as a time to catch up with ourselves too, and to catch up on progress we hoped to have made and power that we wanted to have really
• Warm Up - the weekend is then used for us to get ready for the week ahead. Plans are made, situations reviewed, ideas walked through and we are gearing up to make the week ahead brilliant.

The weekend is a glorious time, and is welcome respite for those building towards something powerful and yet it's also a danger zone if we are unaware....

2 Steps Back

I've seen and experienced what it is for your weekend to go ahead and undo your hard work during the week. After all, you just want some respite.

And yet, it's important that your weekends still work towards your goals, and don't simply reverse the progress and gains you made during the week.

And take it from someone who knows. During the more emphatic aspects of my weightloss journey, I could lose as much as 4 or 5lbs Monday to Friday only to put on 2lbs at the weekend. Yes - it was progress, but it was 5 steps forward, 2 steps back...

I wasn't walking with wisdom and I was slowing my progress...

So as much as I loved my weekends, I began to dread them from the point of view of that goal, because I knew that I wasn't making the best use of the time.

Reversal Limitation

In doing things this time round, I'm very much focused on ensuring that my weekends work with my goals rather than against them so I've used a few strategies to limit the possibility of my hard-earned gains during the week

• Gratitude - it never fails, and I make sure that I use and ramp up my gratitude practice at the weekends which keeps me firmly focused on the opportunities ahead.
• Identity Check - when we are working to make a change, the most successful changes come about as a result in a fundamental shift in our identity, from the people we were before, to the people we 'now want to be' - I ask myself 'What would XYZ person do?' Where XYZ relates to the identity of the person that has the outcome that I want - and then that way, I'm not longer just 'trying' to do better... I imbibe 'being' that type of person - this has been most helpful of all.
• Environmental Design - when all else fails, and the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak on changes you wish to implement, you will be amazed at how powerful being intentional about ensuring that your environment supports your new goals is - as a strategy to stay on track. - So that definitely reduces the Saturday Popcorn and Doughnuts for me, but I have lots of other yummy scrummy things to make eating just as fun and enjoyable.

Weekends are super powerful, and has such opportunity to be vital in the progression towards our goals. But it's essential that we use them powerfully and additively as we pursue what we are after, and live them more by design and less by default, lest we risk reversing those hard earned gains, and lengthening the struggle that we face.

Make sure your WEEKEND doesn't make for a WEAK END!