 Welcome to the Anxious Morning, where each weekday morning we take a look at ideas, concepts, and lessons designed to help you understand and overcome your anxiety. For more information, visit us at theanxiousmorning.com. The Goldilocks Rule says that humans maintain motivation in the face of challenge when that challenge is far enough beyond our current capability to be interesting, but not too far beyond so as to be discouraging. You hear me speak and write continuously using the words incremental and systematic. This is one reason why. Approaching recovery this way can help keep us engaged and motivated without falling into boredom or discouragement traps. How did I manage to get up every morning for months on end to do my driving and other exposures? The answer is that I was being incremental enough to challenge myself, but not drown myself in failure. Some days felt like winds, some days were kind of neutral, and some days were a struggle, but there was a good balance between the winds and the struggle so that the winds didn't become too easy while the struggle didn't become disheartening. I did not plan this. It was admittedly a happy accident. Hey, if I can help you stay motivated and engaged with the process of recovery by sharing my accident, then so be it. When we go too slow because we seek comfort more than progress, we run the risk of becoming bored and even disillusioned with the process. I've written that when the walk around the block becomes consistently easy and you stop seeing it as a real challenge, it's time to take things to another level. If you do not, you will declare that nothing is changing and that it all seems like it just doesn't work. Going too fast, which is more common you might think, leads into experience after experience that stretch us far beyond our current perceived limits and we'll talk about the word perceived later. Seeing that we are getting it over with, we start pushing through difficult situations that wind up feeling like daily trips into a torture chamber. Imagine trying to become a great guitarist by literally challenging Eric Clapton to a daily guitar duel where you get crushed day after day. How long would that last for you? The trick is to slide into that zone that provides enough challenge to make things interesting while also providing enough winds to keep you from being discouraged. Well, how do you find that zone? Mostly it's trial and error. Start by being brutally honest with yourself about what you find challenging or not challenging then setting your targets from there. Try things, see how it goes and adjust. It won't take too long to find the Goldilug zone but be patient with yourself while you figure that out. It's a good investment in your time. Once you've found that zone, work it and remember that the zone keeps moving as you keep progressing. Stay in it. Do not drop out or you run the risk of landing in the dreaded acceptable bubble half recovered. Do not get ahead or you may find that what was once great progress winds up in a ditch and on fire while you wonder why. Goldilocks was working overtime to find the bed that was just right. She was really on to something there. That tomorrow we'll confront the idea that nobody is coming to save you and why it's so empowering. If you're enjoying the anxious morning and you'd like to get a copy of the podcast delivered into your email inbox every morning, visit the anxious morning dot email and subscribe to the newsletter. If you're listening on Apple or iTunes, take a second and leave a five star rating, maybe write a small review. It really helps me out. And finally, if you find my work useful and you'd like to help keep it free of advertising and sponsorships, you can see all the ways to support the work at the anxioustruth.com slash support. Thanks so much.