It’s all about the gains: Turn the page and move on.

From the title, you probably think this blog post is going to be able the gym, but you’d be wrong. I had a very interesting chat earlier this week with someone on the treadmill next to me. I had an easy run to do, wanted to shelter from the hurricane blowing outside after sessioning in it the day before, and fancied a bit of human company (sorry to my dogs). The person on the treadmill next to me, who was in their 70’s, was about halfway through their 90 minute uphill power walk! 

We were chatting away and I had been telling him about how my session the day before was a battle with the wind, but I worked hard and got it done. He said to me, remember it’s all about the gains and never the problems. He said, with anything you do in life, no matter how you think it went, always look at the gains and not the problems. Essentially saying, from every situation you encounter, no matter how you perceive it, there is always something to be gained from it. This is something I have always believed, but the positivity he spoke with really struck me. He was full of great quotes and pieces of advise.

I told him how I always write down how I feel. He said that is great, write down what you learnt, what didn’t go so well, and what you gained, BUT THEN, turn the page, because tomorrow is a new page and a new day. There is no point dragging what happened yesterday into today, or wasting energy worrying about what might happen tomorrow in today. Be in the moment.

I just think this is such a powerful piece of advise to take on. Sometimes we can all be guilty of dwelling. We can over think things we wish didn’t happen or things we wished we done, but this doesn’t help anyone or anything. All you can do is focus on the now and today. 

It is also helpful on a practical level. Sometimes we want to be able to move on and not dwell, but we don’t know what to do to be able to do this. So, an activity you can do to prevent the dwelling is WRITE it all down. Get a notepad and get everything you are feeling, thinking or have experienced out of your head. It doesn’t need to make sense and you don’t need to write it back to yourself, but just getting it out of your head already makes it much easier to manage the thoughts, and physically turning the page onto a clear one ready for the next day, puts it in the past, encouraging you to move on. 

This isn’t rocket science or a one time life changing act, but if you consistently do it, you may find your brain a little bit clearer and less cluttered.