I saw this comment and was inspired to write a short piece on how I do the things that I don’t always want to do. The important things. The things that move my life forward and allow me to evolve into a better version of myself.
Things like dieting (like my current keto regime). Things like working out and reading and writing, etc.
One of the main motivators for me to keep doing the things that I don’t always want to do is the feeling that comes right after I do them.
There are 2 feelings that you will get after you do something or not do something. You will either be so proud and jubilated with your hard work and you will feel fantastic about the fact that you did something so beneficial for yourself and didn’t give up or you will feel guilty for not doing it. You will feel as though you failed yourself and now you need to make some excuse up for why you didn’t do what you were supposed to do.
When I’m about to do something that I’m having second thoughts about doing - thoughts of wanting to take the easy route and just give up on the task altogether - I just think about these 2 feelings and ask myself: “which of these feelings do I want to feel in 20 minutes or 2 hours or however long it will take to finish the task?”
I know that the answer is always the former. The ladder is always the easy way out and the lazy path.
But What if It’s a Sign From Your Body to Take it Easy?
This is a common response to the kind of reasoning laid out above…
What if your body is telling you that you’re pushing to hard - you’re training in the gym too much, you’re taking too many meetings, you’re reading for too long, you’re writing too much, or you wrote a lot yesterday, so there’s no point in doing more today…
After all, taking 1 day off is not going to harm your progress… It may even speed it up… right?
Possibly right but with the wrong execution.
If you want to take 1 day off here and there because you’re feeling really tired, then take the 1 day off on your terms.
Don’t take the day off on the day that you feel tired. Work and push through it today and then take tomorrow off.
If you want to take 1 day off from the gym, that’s fine. But don’t take the day off when you decide to do it 10 minutes before you get dressed for the gym. Acknowledge the feeling of being tired and then tell yourself that the day off will be tomorrow. But today, we grind.