It’s the beginning of the second week of January. This is right around the time where “the drift” starts…
Most of us are back in the office. You don’t have to hit the refresh button to know if your email is syncing – we’re back to business as usual.
This is the week where the glow of the new year starts to fade into the reality of how our daily lives are structured.
So many people – myself included – start the year with genuine desire for change. There is something so deeply satisfying about the sense of progress, of improving.
And we often hear “you have to have a strong why” to carry you through the year.
I actually think this is misguided advice.
It’s incomplete. A strong why gets you going, but I don’t think it’s what keeps you going.
Because what carries us through our daily lives is not motivation, but our systems.
Phew – did I just give you emotional whiplash? Here we are talking about dreams, and feelings, and all of a sudden I hit you with such a stiff, sterile word – systems.
But systems aren’t as intimidating or boring as they sound.
A system is a consistent answer to a question you face daily.
- How am I going to make breakfast?
- How am I going to do my makeup?
- How am I going to get the kids ready for school?
Whether we’re conscious of them or not, we are all operating within systems. You probably have a consistent way of doing your make up:
- Grab make up bag & open zipper
- Grab primer & brush, blend
- Grab foundation & brush, blend
- Open eyeshadow pallets, grab flat brush, and tap
Our systems carry us, because we don’t have the capacity to start from scratch every single day.
Our outcomes are tied directly to them.
For example, my incredible trainer, Ashley Damaj, taught me that lean, protein dense breakfasts with a lot of greens is foundational to staying on track with macros. It’s really, really hard to recover from a “free for all” breakfast.
Knowing this and applying this are two totally different things.
If it’s easier to grab a carb-dense, low protein breakfast, like a tasty bagel with cream cheese, that’s what we’ll do. Motivation drops drastically if we’re rushing, the baby is crying, and your phone is already buzzing with pings.
But this is actually good news. Because it means we can choose what we make easy.
We can set ourselves up to have systems that serve us, that are in line with our goals.
What that looks like for me right now
I started to see such great results with my protein breakfast bowls, that I built a simple system to make it the easiest thing to grab in my fridge.
Every Monday and Friday, we dice zucchini and store it in individual containers for each day
Whoever is doing food prep does this, it’s not always me. More on delegation coming soon…
I found pasture raised egg-white cartons at a wholesaler
super important because I didn’t want to sacrifice quality for convenience
I found some AIP friendly seasonings on Thrive Market
I have eczema and my systems have to be really intentional with ingredients
And I pre-grate cheese with my food processor which gets it done in literally 15 seconds.
Because, flavor.
All of this adds up to a breakfast routine that makes these breakfast bowls the easiest thing for me to reach for. It’s designed for my motivation levels on my 3/10 days, not my 10/10 days.
More than the time savings, all the friction is removed, so it’s a light lift, saving my energy for things that are less predictable (which is when we need it most).
And a huge bonus – it’s so easy, that Sergio will often make this for me and never even has to ask, “what do you want to eat?” (More on why this is such a loaded question coming soon).
So if you feel the resistance starting to creep in on your new year goals, don’t go chasing motivation.
Build systems that will carry you even on your hard days.