Category: Building Habits

This Sunday, there’s a playoff football game that cuts into my usual workout time.

So today, I’m planning my alternative.

If I wait until Sunday, I’ll probably get swept up in the hype and skip it altogether.

But, if I know what’s coming, I can arrange my day in such a way where “workout” gets put into the best possible slot given the unique forecast of events.

“Winging it” on busy and exciting days isn’t a good strategy.

We have to make time for the things we know are going to make us.

…Even on—especially on—days we consider to be “special” or “out of the ordinary.”

Because as soon as we consider that to be a viable excuse…

We might suddenly see more and more “special” and “out of the ordinary” days creeping into our schedules.

Not because we’re lazy, per se, but because that’s what excuses do. Like weeds, they only ceaselessly grow once planted. So you can either choose to not plant the damn thing in the first place or you can deal with the thing as it grows and regrows and relentlessly grows time and time again despite your best efforts to kill it off.

…I know which option I’m choosing.

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P.s. I’m looking to submit longer-form pieces of my writing to like-minded, like-themed blogs, magazines, and publications… Any suggestions on where might be a good fit?

I have holiday hangover.

Mostly from eating more than usual and working out less than usual.

And it has me feeling self-conscious and crappy.

At a previous time in my life, I would channel all that energy into one mega intense workout to try and make up for the holiday dip.

But now, I try to do the opposite. I try not to run from it… I try to *really* feel that crappy feeling… And I try to convert it into a more sustainable source of energy. A source of energy that carries me through a month’s worth of workouts rather than one or two really intense ones.

Just like you can’t eat one healthy meal to make up for a week’s worth of crap, you can’t do one mega workout to make up for a week’s worth of inactivity.

In fact, from my experience, it tends to work proportionally in the opposite direction. One week of inactivity is made up with one month of consistent workouts. One month of crappy eating is made up with one quarter (of a year) of healthy eating.

Dont let this disappoint you.

To feel disappointment would mean you expect health and fitness to yo-yo… one week off, one week on; one month off, one month on; one year off, one year on… which would be a mistake. The goal should be 95% on and 5% off—ish. As in, 2-4 weeks per year of being off and the rest in routine, building healthy habits, and riding the wave of your momentum.

In short: Let the holiday hangover fuel you—not just for tomorrow—but for a chunk of this new year.

Anyone can say, “My goal is to read 100 books in 2024” or “My resolution is to exercise every day” or “This year, I’m going to make six figures online.”

And in many cases… this is as far as people will go with goal setting… saying it.

Which is why… when the excitement of the new year wanes… and a few curveballs are thrown… and there’s sleepiness… Talk Goals crumble.

…Because the only thing holding them up is a weak frame of verbal commitment that’s based on an external energy source (the new year).

All goals should be Systems Goals that can be kept in place regardless of motivation levels, curve balls, and/or sleepiness.

In fact, good systems take each of the above factors into account ahead of time, EXPECT them to happen, and have an action plan ready to be deployed when they do.

Let’s take reading 100 books as an example. If we assume the average book length is 300 pages, then you’d have to read ~82 pages per day to reach 100 books by the end of the year (100 books x 300 pages each = 30,000 total pages / 365 days = ~82 pages per day).

So the system would be read 100 pages every day at [x] time in [x] place and to read at least ONE page on the curveball days, of which, you’ve accounted one day per week for (by reading more on the other days).

Obviously, personalize accordingly (my guide was built to help you do exactly this).

Bottom line: before you commit to a goal, rigorously inspect and question the system(s) you’d have to commit to in order to achieve that goal. THEN commit.

The beautiful thing about doing something for long enough is that eventually your subconscious starts doing most of the work for you.

Today is my 1,415th day of consecutive daily posts.*

(*Minus the days I was at Burning Man, off the grid).

And the beauty of this streak is that the task has seeped its way into my subconscious.

Which means, rather than needing to remember that I have to send a post out, actively blocking out time in my calendar, doing time-intensive brainstorms for topics, and stressing out about the final product like it was being graded by a college professor… my subconscious takes care of most of that for me.

I don’t need to remember to write—it’s an automatic reflex in my day.

I don’t need to actively block out time in my day—it’s already accounted for before I do any conscious blocking.

I don’t need to do any time-intensive brainstorms for topics to write about—my brain bubbles up ideas all day long… because it knows the writing is coming.

And as far as the stressing out about the final product? Well, after you do anything for 1,415 days in a row… hitting the submit/publish/ship button becomes a helluva lot easier and increasingly less intimidating.

This is all to say: don’t make things harder than they need to be. Do less now… so that you can do more over a longer period of time.

Eventually, the daily habit will start to take care of itself and require a fraction of what it used to when you were yo-yo-ing.

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P.s. I also published: How Do I Know If Meditation Is Working?