It’s frustrating when something is holding back your performance. Maybe you’re injured, or just not as fit and fast as you’d like to be.
You see other people flying past you when you are out for your run, and you want to take off after them. You remember how good you used to be and you want to be at that level again. Or perhaps you are just short of where you want to be and your body is not able to keep up with your goals.
This can be a really dangerous time.
The frustration you feel at not being able to keep up can lead you to override your sensible plans, and cause you to do something stupid. You get impatient, push too hard, train too aggressively and before you know it you are injured again and back at square one.
Improving fitness and building to peak performance is a long, gradual process. I once heard a quote attributed to Rob deCastella that ‘your performance today is based on the training you did over the last 5 years’.
In other words, there are no short cuts.
The same applies to your finances.
It is easy to compare our current position to where we would like to be. We regret things we haven’t done as well as poor decisions we’ve made or setbacks we’ve experienced.
Ultimately though, the only way our position will improve is by making an incremental step to improve it today.
And tomorrow.
And the next day.
It might be frustrating, but it should also be comforting.
You are in control, and to succeed you just need to focus on the process.