We can be so hard on ourselves. We decide to change something in our lives, have some quick wins or even a longer period of success, and then we lose the thread a little (or a lot) and give up.

‘Back to the starting line!’ we think. And it feels such a long way away. We can feel like we’re failing, multiple times over.

'Why am I like this? Why can’t I stick with things?'

When we hit an obstacle on the path towards a goal, there can be a temptation to give up. Instead of acknowledging the setback and finding a way around it, we take ourselves right back to the start.

This is about our relationship with perfection. It’s like we’re playing a game of Tetris or Bubble Shooter, putting one piece in the wrong place, and sabotaging the rest of the game on purpose. It’s the ‘Tim Tam’ effect: 'I've had one. Might as well devour the whole packet.'

We struggle to reach our goals if we rule out winding paths. The truth is, if we just want to get there ‘properly’ and ‘fast’, without blips, we’re going to fail.

'Enough' is a decision, not an amount

Those are Alison Faulkner’s words, and we LOVE this advice. What if, along the road to our personal reinvention, we kept consciously calling ‘enough’?

It’s not about cutting corners. It’s about making frequent strategic calls about when to make the next turn. It’s about knowing when a tactic isn’t working and stopping it, without fanfare, and moving forward a different way, from where you are.

'Fresh-start-itis' is that compulsion we feel to begin from scratch and complete a perfect course. It’s what has us waiting until ‘next Monday’ to begin again if we’ve dropped a ball.

Is it messy to pick up where we left off? Maybe it feels that way. But the big changes happen when we treat Thursday afternoon at 3:17pm as if it’s just as powerful as Monday at 8am. (It’s actually more powerful, because it unleashes massive swathes of previously wasted time.)

We encourage you to ditch the narrative that a path to change needs to be unblighted by obstacles, mistakes and disappointments. Forget that ‘magical’ idea of starting-over. Gather yourself up and keep going from where you are.