One of my amazing Unicorns asked, “I was wondering if there were general “success” habits that you’ve noticed yourself and/or all clients who’ve met / exceeded their goals practice consistently on the daily?”

One of the things I told her that I think is actually at the heart of whether or not we succeed is…

We have to remember that we will NEVER be perfect with anything.

It’s about learning to recognize the detour more quickly to get back on track!

She summarized this thought so nicely as…

Shift as soon as I notice drift.

Exactly!

Detours are going to happen. There will be things that get us off track, whether it’s life events popping up or simply stress.

But success isn’t dependent on us never having these deviations.

It’s dependent on how quickly we can recognize we are off course and get back on track.

How quickly can we “right the ship” so to speak.

Because the quicker we can just sort of note the slip up or mistake, not JUDGE ourselves and then just simply do what we can to move forward?

Often the less those detours really even register or matter.

But the more we sort of make ourselves feel guilty for them, the more we end up actually continuing along the detoured path, getting further and further away from what we need to be doing.

We actually allow ourselves to continue steering in the wrong direction.

So how can you shift as soon as you notice drift?

Here are 3 Tips to help you out:

#1: Don’t judge.

Often it isn’t the mistake that is the issue. It’s our own internal hater judging us that leads us down a dark path.

That one cookie becomes 10. And then it becomes “Screw it I’ve messed up today so may as well just eat bad the rest of the night.” Which then even sometimes becomes, “Well it’s Thursday so may as well just wait to start over Monday because I’ve messed it up!”

This can lead to us basically driving ourselves miles out of our way instead of just turning the car around at that first place to make a U turn.

So what if you had one thing and your macros won’t be perfect?

Better to do what you can and get CLOSE over completely writing the day off!

Mistakes are going to happen. You’re human. Get used to it.

When they do, just do what you can to correct them over making yourself feel guilty or stupid!

#2: Assess.

Often we just ignore or avoid what happened over facing the mistake head on while assessing why it occurred.

The more we can understand the WHY behind the things that happen, the more we can address the true causes and even learn how to handle situations before they happen.

Like if you know you tend to reach for something at the end of the day when you’re stressed and tired.

Maybe you plan in a treat so you don’t feel deprived, even working backward from that.

Or maybe you just realize you can’t even have any of those snacks in the house, at least to start.

Or maybe you just know you need to make a macro friendly sweet treat to keep you on track.

There are so many ways to help yourself overcome potential pitfalls, but the first key is assessing and learning why they happen in the first place.

We will never be perfect, but the more we can improve our understanding of ourselves? The more we can create systems and routines that really work for us!

#3: Pick one small thing to move forward – even just mentally.

If we can’t do something perfectly, we act like it isn’t worth doing.

But if you have a detour?

Just do what you can to get back to it.

Even if you can’t hit your macros and your calories are way off, do something MENTALLY to get back on track.Even if you skipped the workout and are about to go to bed?

Roll out for 5 minutes just so you know you still did something that could even help you tomorrow.

It doesn’t have to be big.

But we want to do something as soon as possible to get the momentum going back in the right direction!

Just remember the key isn’t never slipping up, never making a detour. Those things are going to happen.

The key to success is just recognizing it more quickly and doing what you can to move forward ASAP!