Yesterday I posted an article to Redefining Strength about life lessons you’ll learn from a healthy lifestyle.

I thought this was important to post because I see people every day learning more about themselves through exercise.

And the things they learn about themselves in the gym make them more confident and empowered in everyday life.

For the full article, click here.

Today, however, I just want to touch more on number 3:

“You learn to balance living in the moment with staying dedicated to long-term goals.”

You’ve probably all seen those fitspo that say:

While often the fitspos are being used to say not to cheat on your diet and eat out of stress, there is a good message underneath.

Sometimes you have to ignore immediate desires to achieve your long-term goals. Sometimes you can’t just indulge in every baked good people bring in to work. Sometimes you have to workout even when you are tired and stressed (and it will actually make you feel better in the long run!)

Sometimes you have to do a little work on your day off.

Sometimes you have to think long-term even when it is easy to be short-sighted.

HOWEVER, you can’t become so obsessed with your long-term goals that you don’t live life.

There has to be a balance between thinking long-term and getting to be spontaneous and indulge.

If you constantly restrict yourself and never get to be spontaneous, you probably won’t be able to stick to your program long enough to truly reach your long-term goals. Restriction and deprivation end up leading to binges (be them food binges or simply slacking on work and being a blob binges).

Too much long-term thinking and farsightedness can actually be a bad thing. Because you can’t put off immediate desires forever. And if you try to, most likely you will end up binging worse and falling off your program when a little indulgence could have kept you on track.

So cut yourself some slack every once in a while. Live in the moment.

You need little breaks from your goals – be them health and fitness goals or work goals.

Find a way to balance your goals with enjoying life!