If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now. —Marcus Aurelius
When people who are on a diet slip up, it’s not that one-off slip-up that causes them to fail; it’s their judgment about it, namely persuading themselves that since they made a mistake, all of their prior efforts are now for naught. What follows is self-guilt, which leads to self-doubt, which awakens the need to self-comfort, usually by eating forbidden foods (after all, in their minds they’ve already lost) and subsequently ruining their entire diet.
A similar phenomenon happens with other goals, too. A person saving money who was forced to spend their entire savings on an emergency expense might consider it a reason to stop saving money.
What’s the point of saving if one unplanned cost can wipe out the entire fund? Their incorrect judgment of the situation subsequently destroys the positive habit they’ve built, instead of seeing the situation as a powerful demonstration of how important saving money is.
Whenever you find yourself doubting that you can achieve your goal because you made a mistake or failed to hold out against a temptation, remind yourself that it’s in your power to give this event either a negative or a positive meaning; you can consider it as a reason to give up or as a valuable lesson that will help you in your future endeavors.
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