How to Earn Today

All I want to do right now is sleep. I’m so tired, but I feel so good, too. I finished Day 29 of Insanity: the Asylum. Tomorrow will be my last day, then I’ll take Friday off, and on Saturday I’m going to start the thirty day hybrid workout. I feel good not having to think about what I’m going to do to keep healthy. Instead, all I have to concern myself with is just starting.

Daily routines keep me happy because a major part of what may hold me back is minimized tremendously, and that’s my own damn mind telling me not to do something. One thing I’ve noticed when I’m super focused on improving myself is how much easier it is to just start. Every morning I wake up at 5 AM, brush my teeth, shave, make coffee, sit down by my desk, open my laptop, hit play on iTunes, and start writing. Every morning is the same. The same steps in the same order. I could live without any sort of clock telling me the time, and I could tell you what time it is by just this routine alone. I don’t have to think about it ever. I did when I wanted to implement this change into my life, and trust me, those first few weeks were tough. Once I stopped thinking about it, though?

The hardest part about starting a new habit is sticking with it past the minimum thirty day threshold. I’ve started and stopped so many habits over the past five years that I’ve developed a rhythm of recognizing the patterns of habit creation. The first few days are always the funnest. We’re starting something new, something we know will be beneficial to us in the long-run, something that’ll make us better. But then our mind starts to revolt. This new habit requires effort, and our mind is not used to exerting any effort in this area. So it revolts. The mind tries to convince us that stopping is the best thing to do because it’ll just feel good. Our goal is to push through that. Every day we devote toward accomplishing these new habits is another day stacked on top of our mind until one day, the weight of our new habit becomes our new normal. And just like how we can shower without even thinking about it, we can do whatever new habit we want without thinking about it, too.

So I’m lying in bed, exhausted as all hell, and I feel good because I know I earned today. In one day, I will finish something I started a month ago. I’m 300 words closer toward finishing my novel. People like me at work, and I’ve been told repeatedly how good of a job I’m doing. I started a new book — the Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp — and I’m loving it. These are my defaults, my daily routines that I don’t have to think about but make me feel so good. And so tired. God I’m tired.