Every Damn Day

Every day I write on this blog.

I share something with you about how you can improve the experience in your body.

I do it every day because that’s how we live our lives. Every day; day in, day out, you show up and live your life.

You learn new things bit by bit.

Sometimes you have breakthroughs.

Sometimes, there's one day that's bigger, better, or more important than others.

But most of the time, it's the gradual daily process of change.

So I modeled my blog on it. I don't expect your attention every day, but if you're following along and paying attention for even 80% of the time, I expect both you and I will learn something.

Turning Thoughts into Ideas

Get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Make them real. Make them tangible by putting them on paper.

Do they still seem important?

Thoughts are changed somewhat when they're tangible.

They stop being random undefined stuff rattling around your mind being repeated and amplified.

They become something easier to make decisions about and act on.

You can share them with someone else. You could also do that verbally of course.

When you let thoughts out, they become ideas.

Don’t Expect Others to Understand You

It's so so hard to understand yourself.

Let alone put that into words.

Let alone say them out loud to someone.

Let alone have them understand what you've said.

How can they? They're not you!

They'll never understand what you've said in the same way as you do.

As your words make their way through the other persons layers of understanding, you lose control of the meaning. You never had control in the first place.

What's fascinating is realising that the other person can understand you in a way that you aren't capable of.

That's why it's worth trying to be understood and why it's worth listening to their response.

Together, you can create something better.

Beginner in Every Moment

In each moment you are a beginner.

Experience gives you only a better prediction of what might happen in that moment. But you are always a beginner in every moment.

This might sound like an oversimplification to you. Maybe it is. But, consider this: if you accept that you are a beginner in each moment, you can approach the world with a curiosity and wonder that is impossible otherwise.

Boredom

To achieve your goals, you have to be willing to put up with a boredom. The monotony of practice is part of the practice.

I know you might not want to hear that. Maybe you want it to be fun the whole time, like it is at the start. But, deep down, you know that it's not going to be like that forever.

And, no matter what it may seem from the outside, even the best aren't motivated all the time. They have the down days when they don't want to do it too. But they do it anyway.

There are two tricks to staving off boredom.

The first is to practice in a way that provides just enough novelty. For example, my workout program changes every six weeks. When it changes, I'm still doing approximately 50% of the same drills, with a few changes to timing and structure. The other 50% is usually a progression on something I've already worked on - so it's similar, but different enough. Yet, every time a new program comes it feels exciting!

The other trick is to make sure you're looking at your progress. Showing up every day, feeling like nothing is changing, AND being bored is very hard work. So. Make sure you're measuring something so you can see progress. Even if it's really slow. Aim to be just a tiny bit better (whatever better means to you) in some way each time you practice. I suggest that six weeks is a good interval to look at your progress. You’ll surprise yourself.

With these two tricks, you can work through the boredom more easily.

But, really, there is no trick. You'll still get bored.

You have to fall in love with boredom.

There's something valuable past the point of boredom.

When you're doing something for a purpose rather than for the novelty value. You can pursue novelty in other areas of your life.

If you get bored along the way, maybe it's a good sign you're on your way.

A Decision Making Heuristic

You decide to start a new business, but you don’t commit to it fully because you’re afraid it won’t work. Problem is because you’re not committed to it fully, you may actually be causing it not to work.

You decide to date someone new. You like them, they like you. But you spend your time worrying that you’d be better with someone else.

You decide to change the way you eat, but you don't want to miss out on birthday cake for the rest of your life.

Halfheartedly making decisions makes a fool out of those decisions.

It’s scary to commit fully to something. It means dropping other things. By making the decision to do this, you’re making the decision not to do a bunch of other things. You don’t want to close the door on all those other opportunities.

You can have both.

Use the duration of a decision as a way to fully commit to your decisions.

Decide to commit to something for a specific length of time. At the end of that time, you have another decision to make - you keep going with this, or you take up any of the other opportunities that exist at that time.

Your decisions all have an expiry anyway. Whether you realise it or not, they only exist until you decide to do something else.

Opening a new shop? Take out a lease on the shop for two years and commit fully to trying to make it work for two years. You’re not in this for the rest of your life.

Dating someone new? Try assuming that it’s going great and that you’re committed for the next six weeks. At the end of that time, see where you’re up to.

Trying to change the way you eat? Decide to be strict for a week, then have a day off once a week. You get to make the change, while still enjoying the social side of eating.

When you make difficult decisions, create an expiry date for it. Commit yourself and have a moment planned when you will have to make the decision again.