Michael Ceely, a therapist, explains how to recover from falling off track with habits without harsh self-criticism. Instead of telling yourself you're a failure, talk to yourself like you'd talk to a best friend: acknowledge what you've done consistently before, treat the setback as a brief blip, and offer yourself real encouragement to start again.
When you get off track on these basic habits, how do you prevent that beating up on yourself and get back into what you need to be doing? Get back on track.
The biggest trick I use on myself and advise clients to do this as well, is think about what you would say to your best friend if they did the same thing. So say your best friend says, hey, Sean, I slept in this morning. A couple nights ago, I had too much episode alcohol to drink. I'm being hypocritical, or I'm, you know, not really living up to my standards, I suck, or whatever it is. Like that negative self talk, like, how would you respond to that friend? And that's what you want to do with yourself in your own head, is be your own best friend. Because if you do respond to a friend, you probably say something like, hey, look, you've been so consistent already. It's just a blip in the radar. Don't worry about it. Words of encouragement and kind of painting the bigger picture.
