This was supposed to be the day. My “hard reset” after I fell out of my morning ritual that I had mostly stuck to the for about two weeks. Starting the day before anyone else gets up with a combination of meditation, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading and writing has really primed me for the day ahead - when I’ve managed to stick to it.
I’ll refer back to a post from when I first started this routine - Do or Do Not. In that post I was largely talking to future version of myself when I boldly proclaimed:
Get the word “try” out of your vocabulary. When you decide to “try”, you have already primed your brain to give up.
And yet that is exactly what I did when I fell out of my morning routine while traveling recently. While it would have been slightly more difficult while I was busy during long days and staying in a hotel room, I *could* have still gotten myself out of bed early, and done at least an abbreviated version of my routine. But what was my fatal mistake?
I told myself I would “try” do to it while traveling.
Boom!
Once I inserted the word “try” into my mindset, I may as well have just told myself “I am definitely NOT doing this.”
The results were predictable. “Trying” led to me not doing that routine at all, and it threw me out of whack when returning back to my family. All in total, I spent about two weeks completely missing my morning routine and justifying it with “Hey I was traveling. The clocks changed. Things were tough. It’s all good, slugger.” (No I don’t really call myself “slugger” but it just felt right.)
So this was the day I was going to return to not “trying” but “doing.” Even while waking up for a brief bout of overnight insomnia, I still told myself “I am getting up at 6 am and I am going to be excited about it!” And I did indeed bounce out of bed, ready to start the day.
I then made possibly my first mistake: glancing at my phone and seeing a new text message. I could have ignored it, but as you can imagine I didn’t. And I’m glad I didn't, as it was a text from a friend (thanks, Dan!) pointing out that this morning’s Lions of Liberty interview with Stephan Kinsella had an editing mistake. This caused me to put everything on hold as my planned peaceful morning turned into a frantic panic of reediting and re-uploading my episode, hopefully before most Lions fans were any the wiser.
I got it done, but my morning routine had been thrown out of whack.
From this point I had two options:
1) Say “fuck it” and just go about my day. I was already 90 minutes or so behind “schedule” (the schedule that I made for myself and only I was enforcing).
2) Calm the fuck down, refocus, and get back to my morning.
The last task I complete as part of my routine is writing. Sometimes it’s just writing in my own journal or jotting down things I’m grateful for. Other times, it’s an article I write, such as this one.
And with this post, I complete my morning routine, albeit later than usual.
I have the kind of mind that is prone to saying “fuck it, I’ll do it tomorrow” when faced with moments of adversity. Well I’m here to tell you, the stumble is part of the process, and part of what strengthens your mind and spirit.
Embrace the stumble, and get back on the damn horse or whatever animal and/or vehicle analogy you prefer.
See ya tomorrow!
Check out all of my projects below:
Lions of Liberty, where I facilitate conversations with the hopes of inspiring others to achieve more liberty in their lives.
Second Print Comics podcast, where myself and Remso Martinez take a weekly look at the comic book characters, storylines and events that shaped our fandom.
Thinking about starting a podcast? Already have one? Book a podcast consulting call with yours truly to get yourself on the right track, and learn to grow your show without wasting precious time.
The Expat Money Show - This isn’t my project, but I’m thrilled that I’ve gotten to work directly with my friend Mikkel Thorup to help grow this show over the past few months. I believe greatly in what Mikkel is doing - helping others to achieve greater liberty in their lives by living and investing abroad - and helping grow this program has been a true joy. I also get to help moderate The Expat Money Forum on Facebook - check it out!