Your attitude toward failure will determine your ultimate success. Focus and a healthy mind can help you reframe setbacks as opportunities to learn and recalibrate.
Expect both ups and downs on your journey toward better health. There will be highlights and setbacks. Failure does not have to defeat or derail you. It can actually increase your chances of ultimate success. The Daniel Plan encourages you to turn bad days into good information and to study your failures. Learn from your mistakes.
Regardless of your circumstances and how you feel, focus on who God is—his unchanging nature. Remind yourself of what you know to be eternally true about God: He is good, he loves me, he is for me. He knows my struggles and my circumstances, and I know he has a good plan for my life.
Setbacks help you identify your most vulnerable moments. We do not want you to be a victim of your failures, but rather to study them to understand what contributed to the outcome. Be curious. We like saying, “Turn bad days into good data.”
Follow a few simple rules for vulnerable times:
• Manage your stress.
• Avoid your triggers.
• Eat healthy foods first.
• When tempted, take a walk, repeat a poem or Scripture verse, drink a glass of water.
• Be aware of impulses and then focus on something else until the impulse goes away.
• Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
• Get moving.
Follow the 90/10 rule. Give yourself a break. Make great food choices 90 percent of the time, and allow yourself margin to enjoy some of your favorite foods on occasion. This way you won’t feel deprived, and you will avoid binging on something you’ll regret later.
As you shift your perspective on failure, liberate your friends by showing them grace. Encourage and support others when they make mistakes or hit a rut on their journey. When people know they are loved, you can become a safe place where your friends feel free to share their challenges and find the confidence to turn their setbacks around.
