Day 9: Chunks

Hi, my name is Rachel.  I am not an addict but I did, in fact, poop in my pants the day before my colonoscopy.  I bring this up not to give you a horrendous mental picture (which it was), but because it got me thinking about chunks.  Haha not those kind of chunks, but breaking things into manageable chunks.  Yesterday, I had to drink TWO LITERS of this pretty gnarly powdery drink to clear out my system.

 I figured I'd give a comparison of the size of the container (TWO of these!).  Sad, sad times.

I had to drink 8oz. every 15 minutes until 1 liter was complete, then drink 16oz. of a clear liquid, wait an hour and a half, rinse, and repeat.  The only thing that made this even somewhat manageable was that I could break down what I had to do into small chunks (although at the time, the word 'chunks' didn't go over so well).  I could think about drinking 8oz. of this liquid laxative, but to think about drinking an entire liter of it made me want to....well, you know.  After I drank the 1st ounce, I started thinking about the 2nd oz., and then the 3rd, and then before I knew it, the liter was gone.


As I lay in bed with a rumbling stomach, getting ready to sprint to the toilet, I thought about how much breaking down goals into smaller chunks really helps you stay mentally focused, motivated, and confident.  Yeah, I wasn't running the Boston Marathon last night (on second thought, I did make about 1097234 trips to the bathroom and back...), but, for me, this was a challenging thing I had to do and I wasn't sure I could do it.

Obvi, this is similar to my figure competition process.  The only way that I can think about it is 1 day, 1 week, 1 phase at a time.  I think about what my lift is the next day, or how many days or weeks are left in each phase, but I try not to think, "Oh boy, I have to do this for another 22 weeks, which is equal to just shy of 6 months."  Of course those thoughts creep up on me occasionally, but to stay focused, motivated, and confident that I can and will do this, I have to break it down into chunks of time that I can actually wrap my brain around.  Any task, even minute ones, require "chunking" so that they can be completed effectively or just completed at all.

If you think about it, we 'chunk' all the time.  We chunk our day, "I'll finish this task by lunch and then I'll complete this task after lunch."  We chunk weeks, "It's hump day!  Only 2 more days, I can do it!"  We chunk months, "One more month until summer vacation."  We chunk years, "By the end of this year, I want to have saved x amount of money, lost x amount of weight, etc."  Heck, we chunk our whole lives, "By this age, I want to graduate college.  By this age, I want to get married.  I want to have kids by this age and buy a house at this age" and on an on.  OK, I'll stop saying the word 'chunk' now.

It seems our brains just function better when we take 1 piece of life at a time, deal with it, and then move on.  Life, otherwise, is just so overwhelming we may freak out and, well, poop our pants...

xoxoxo