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Staying on track, a.k.a. Carry ON!



How do you stay on track?

With your running?  With your clean eating?  With maintaining kind relationships?

OH, are you challenged with that too?  Glad I'm not alone.  The key is to find your way back to the path as soon as you realize you are off track.  Sometimes that's not the easiest thing to do.  And yet completely worth it.

Here's my recent realization about getting back on track.  I've done a lot of work recently in the Carry On, Warrior space - with my marriage.  And it's payoff in spades.  Truly amazing!  Although I can say that the first weekend that things went awry I thought, "you've got to be kidding me - I'm working hard here!"  And I took a deep breath.  And carried on.  Realizing that sometimes it's not going to be easy keeping it on track all the time.

So today as the movers arrived and the house is in chaos we are not in complete agreement about certain elements of the pack.  Not a big issue you think, right?  Well in the moment it feels like a big deal.  And its a combination of saying goodbye to many areas of my life, the rest of that life in boxes and the house in chaos.   And then I realized I forgot to leave out my jeans.  And they've now been packed away in one of the boxes in a stack.  No idea which one and the temperature is about 44 - at the end of April~!  So I'm in shorts and a sweatshirt - I'll survive, I'm sure!!

So when we started to get frustrated with each other I thought, "oh no, not again.  I thought I was passed all this!"  Funny, huh?  Passed all this ....

That's not how it works.

This is how it works.  As soon as you realize it's off track.  Right it.  Now.  Fix it.  Apologize.  Find a quiet spot until you're able to apologize if necessary.  Go for a walk.  Clear you head.  You name it, find a way to fix it.  Fast.

In the past I've let it get off track so far that it reaches another county.  And then sometimes we're barely in the same time zone.  Those are tough situations to get back on track without a bus pass.  And honestly, we shouldn't need a bus pass for this.  It takes an apology, an ask for help - and a hug.  A real one.  And then he winks and says, "why don't you go get us some lunch?'  Brilliant!

And as I drove away it occurred to me that all this new found wisdom was not going to prevent disagreements.  What it does allow me is to recognize that I want the good stuff back as quickly as possible.  The togetherness and the laughter is well worth an apology and an ask for help.  And it gets us through it so much quicker than having to drive in from another county.  And that might not be for another couple weeks.

Hmm, I think I just learned something.  Pretty valuable too.  This carrying on thing is awesome.

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