“We are not our best intentions. We are what we do.” — Amy Dickinson

I had every intention of doing a kettle bell workout yesterday. Work got away from me early in the morning, we cleaned up the in-laws’ garage and brought bulky artifacts of their previous life to the transfer station, I walked the pup a long way to reward her for her patience on a long drive, and we capped the day with a visit to a beautiful new member of the family. The kettle bells I’d loaded in the truck remained in the truck. Best intentions, but life gets away from us sometimes. The day was otherwise productive and memorable.

It’s very easy to miss a workout, a blog post or some promise we made to ourselves, and easier still to beat ourselves up over it. ‘Tis better to acknowledge what went well, where we missed the mark and why our best intentions went astray. Forensic analysis identifies gaps in discipline and trends in behavior. Self-awareness leads to changes in our lifestyle, or maybe just more of the same. As with everything, it’s all what we do with the information.

We are indeed what we do. With apologies to the kettle bells, there was a lot to like in my day yesterday. Last time I checked, today is a new day. So what are today’s intentions now that we’re armed with all this information about yesterday?