Before I dive into this newsletter, I am super excited to announce that The Joy Choice is a Next Big Idea Club’s Season 18 Nominee! Having it considered by this prestigious group of people that I deeply respect is beyond an honor for me.
Now, onto my real life examples of picking the Joy Choice strategy.
As someone who is advising the world to pick Joy Choices when their eating, exercise, or other self-care plans go awry, I am getting asked for concrete examples of how I am doing this in my own life.
For the past few weeks, the many tasks and responsibilities involved in launching The Joy Choice has consumed most of my time. Yet (no surprise here!) the rest of my extremely full life did not go away. In fact, it looked a lot like this:
During this extremely hectic time, choice points have been coming at me thick and fast, and I’ve been depending on the Joy Choice strategy to help me stay consistent with my greater walking, healthy eating, and meditation goals. Even when I can’t do what I had planned, desired, or hoped for, I can pick the Joy Choice — the perfect imperfect option that helps me stay consistent and on track with my overall goals.
Here’s an example. When things are less hectic, I try to regularly walk a 50-minute route around my neighborhood. But most days in the last while, I have not had time to fit in this ideal walk (see bubbles above for reference!). To overcome the all-or-nothing thinking that calls me to drop my walk altogether, on most days I have chosen to walk a 13-minute route with my dog (7 minutes each way). I still yearn for that extra 37 minutes, but I know that I’m still achieving my greater goal of consistency and that feels like a huge win. Bonus: It also makes my dog very happy.
Here’s another example. I’ve been meditating on and off since the mid 1980s. For the last couple of years, I’ve been consistently meditating on most days, and I’ve worked up to 12 minutes. But the many tasks of this book launch meant that I often didn’t have time for this full sitting, so on some days I opted for 3 minutes and even just 2 minutes – yes, just 2 minutes! – because something is better than nothing. And this choice has a double benefit: (1) Taking even a small mental pause allows my brain to reset and clear, and (2) it’s a clear win. Knowing that I’m consciously choosing to stay consistent with a self-care activity I highly value boosts my confidence and makes a positive difference to my state of mind the rest of the day. That small number has a big impact.
Picking the Joy Choice is an intentional decision to do something instead of nothing. It supports flexible thinking, creativity, and fun, and it ensures the sustainability of our long-term goals. And that just feels good.
I invite you to find a way during the next month to experiment with picking the Joy Choice when you encounter choice points in any self-care arena. If you’re so inclined, please email me and let me know about your situation, what you did and what you experienced.
Feel free to share this post with others who share your interest in the science-based how-to’s of creating lasting changes that can survive in the real world.
Copyright © Segar, Michelle.