One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is “next week things will go back to normal.” What is normal? It seems like literally every day there is something that’s requiring our immediate attention or pulling us out of our default position. Things never get back to normal. Things evolve.

We’ve recently started calling changes “the new normal.” Sure, there are new things that will never go back to the way they were. That’s true and common throughout history. We evolve and change and grow and learn. That’s kinda how this whole human experience goes.

The crucial piece though, is that we can’t be waiting for “normal” before we start doing things. We can’t keep giving ourselves exceptions to the new rules for living we have come up with simply because things aren’t normal this week. We can’t eat takeout for every meal simply because this is a stressful week – most weeks have stressors. We can’t skip the exercise that keeps us healthy and sane simply because this isn’t a normal few days. We can’t ignore our friends and relationships simply because we’re waiting for normal.

Stop waiting for normal. You’re never going to find it and you’re always going to have an excuse about why you’re not doing the things you know you need to do in order to be the better/faster/stronger/healthier/smarter version of yourself that you’re trying to be.

If you wait for normal to do those healthy self-improvement kinds of things, you’ll never get any momentum in them. You may find one “normal” or “good” week but it’ll be interspersed between three challenging ones. That’s the enemy of progress.

The better idea is to make small incremental changes that you can sustain even when things aren’t normal. Drink more water – most people can do that even in a hectic period. Get whatever movement you can – even if that’s just taking the long way from the parking lot into work. Eat vegetables with every meal – even if every meal is takeout, you can maximize the vegetables you get with your food. If you can do these things even during the stressful non-normal weeks, you can make them part of normal. That’s the momentum. That’s how real change happens.

Development doesn’t happen because things are ideal all the time. Development happens when you figure out ways to overcome your challenges and persevere. So start small with your changes and ignore whether things are normal or not. Normal days are irrelevant. The hard days are the ones where change actually occurs.