Do What You Can

Charles Darwin is probably best known for his theory of evolution, where he stated that it was those that were most adaptable to change who would survive. He was talking about long term evolution over many millennia, rather than short term change in a few months or years.

But that adaptability is still a key to ‘survival’ in everyday life.  

In the world of health and fitness, you will often hear the phrase, “Consistency is key”. And I have said it before to clients – consistency in action is where the change occurs (or I may have said it’s where the magic happens!).

In essence that sentiment is not wrong. 

If you want to get stronger or fitter or leaner or healthier, you have to have an approach that is consistent. Eating healthier or lifting weights or going for a run for one day won’t equate to a super fit and strong human being. You would have to implement a routine that is practised many times over for a period of time for change to happen.

And it is being in that routine that would create the consistency that is talked about.

Which is awesome. And it is a great place to be.

But what happens when life gets in the way?

Life, work, family and a multitude of other things can impinge on your time making it really difficult to get that hour in the gym, or go for that run or eat as healthily as possible. And that is where being adaptable is so important.

One of the mantras that I often trot out is, “Do what you can, when you can, with what you’ve got.”

James Clear summed with this great bit of advice in his book, Atomic Habits: “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 the circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day. Adaptability is the way of consistency.”

So yes, being consistent with something is where the magic of change happens. But being adaptable is so important to enable you to keep on being consistent.

If your work meeting has overrun and now you only have five minutes to do a workout, do something simple in five minutes, instead of thinking, “Well stuff it. There’s no time so I’ll sit down in front of the TV”

If your child has kept you up for most of the night and you are rightly cream crackered, then go easy on yourself and choose to do a light workout instead of the planned high intensity session you had in the diary. That can wait and your body will thank you for it.

In essence it all comes down to combating an all or nothing mindset that many of us are predisposed to have, where you’re essentially saying that there are only two options: success or failure. By doing what you can, when you can, with what you’ve got you can mitigate that mindset. 

It all comes down to how you measure your success. Is getting some form of exercise when you thought you wouldn’t be considered a ‘win’? In my head it definitely is. So give yourself a break and lose the all or nothing mindset. 

Exercise is awesome. It all counts and it all adds up. Something is better than nothing. Adapt to what life throws at you and ‘win’.

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