I’ve been thinking alot about consistency lately. Mostly because where I am today in my health journey is not where I’d like to be.

When I audit my life from the past year or so, it becomes painfully clear how I got here. It becomes even more clear what I need to do to change it.

I retired after a 33 year career with American Express last Feb, 2022 and immediately jumped into my 2nd career as a nutrition coach. I had been coaching for a few years, but this was my chance to work full time in a 2nd career… to do what I knew I was put on this earth to do, serve others. 

What I didn’t anticipate was how I was going to feel after leaving American Express. Nobody really prepared me for the emotions of leaving a career and a company that I worked for my entire life. I worked for American Express for more than half my life. It was all I ever knew.

Then, one day it was gone. Of course, it was my choice to retire but I hadn’t realized how much of my identity was wrapped around what I had done and for whom I had worked for 33 yrs. 

Like many of you, I am an emotional eater and a work in progress. I found it difficult to wrap my head around my new normal. My routine had been completely upended and I had not planned accordingly for that. I struggled to understand what my purpose was in this world. I felt like I provided no value. Even though I was helping and serving others by being a full time coach, it all still felt so foreign to me.  I felt like life was slipping away and I was on the back end of it. I mean ‘retirement’? That’s what ‘old’ people do and I didn’t feel ‘old’.

At the time, when I was going through these emotions, I didn’t put 2 + 2 together. It was my consistency that was lost and that happened way before I left American Express.  Unfortunately, that change coupled with my lack of consistency was fuel to an ever growing fire. When I look back, if I was consistent about anything it was being inconsistent. I was consistent in NOT taking the actions to align with my goals. 

Fast forward a year or so later and I find myself in a completely different headspace. Several things happened over the last year that helped me. For a lot of the year, I felt like I was trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Nothing really felt right. Now that I’ve worked through that, things seem so much more clear about why I am where I am….and more importantly, where I need to go next. 

Now that I understand and have identified where I veered off course, I can take the necessary steps to correct.

But, here’s the thing…. Even if I had figured it out before now, I may not have been able to do anything about it because my mindset wasn’t there. I was not in the right place emotionally. I also know that is OK. I talk about this to my clients all the time. We all struggle with that perfection mentality and when we can’t do something the way WE think it should be done, we don’t do anything at all… and when we don’t do anything at all, we lose that consistent momentum. 

What I do know is that we are all right where we should be. It may not be where we WANT to be, but I can assure you, it is right where you SHOULD be.

If you’re going through something heavy, it’s OK to do all that you need to do to get through it. It’s also OK to let go of some of the things you should be doing but at the moment it’s taking all your energy just to get through the day. 

…and when you’re finally through it, take stock of what happened and what you need to do to resume working towards your important goals. It’s time to rebuild that momentum through consistency. 

Why? Because you’re right where you need to be and that’s a beautiful thing.