Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 13, Issue 11: Willingness To Adapt

I just got back home a few weeks ago after living in Addis for a few months. At home, my environment allows me to do my walking workouts outside as early as 5am in the morning. And the setting in my house allows me to do strength training workouts with weights from YouTube workouts on my TV at 4.30am. And that's what I did until the day I left for Addis, and when I got back home.

The first hotel I checked into upon arrival in Addis had a great gym on a separate building, and it wasn't open until 6am in morning. The hotel management agreed to have it opened for me at 5am, and I used it for the first couple of days for both my walk and strength training workouts. But I soon felt uneasy about being in a gym alone when it was still pitch dark outside. So I stopped going and worked out in my hotel room with YouTube body-weighted workouts on the TV. My daily walking workout was substituted by walks to and from the office in the morning, during lunch break and in the evening.

When I left the hotel and moved to a more permanent accommodation arrangement, my hotel apartment was far from the office, so I couldn't walk back and forth. I also did not feel safe to go outside for my 5am walking workouts. And I wasn't disappointed about the lack of a gym in the facility. I adjusted my morning YouTube workouts on the TV from body-weighted strength trainings to walking workouts. I also did a bit of walking at the office parking lot during lunch breaks. And on the weekends I went out for long walks in the middle of the day.

I admit, my workouts in Addis weren't as rigorous and efficient as my workouts at home before and now. But I worked out. I adapted to my environment and continued to exercise in some shape and form. I maintained my identity of being a person who works out at least 5 days a week.

To be maintained and improved, habits have to be done consistently. But I have learned that practically, consistency is not about being disciplined. It is about being adaptable. If I wasn't willing to adapt my workouts in Addis, I could have either put myself in harm's way or put working out on hold all together. And so, when I recently read James Clear's post on consistency, I knew I wanted to write about it.

"In theory, Consistency is about being disciplined, determined and unwavering. In practice, consistency is about being adaptable. Don't have much time? Scale it down. Don't have much energy? Do the easy version. Find different ways to show up depending on your circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day. Adaptability is the way of consistency." James Clear.

Which of your habits do you need to get comfortable with adjusting to suit your current circumstance? We can always show up for the things we have signed up for even when our circumstances change. All we need to do is adapt. Then we can be guaranteed to remain consistent and achieve our goals.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi