Reality Laughs

I think when I run. Usually it’s about Them or These Troubles Times and how They Are Doing It All Wrong and how I will courageously and humbly fix it.

This morning I started to try something different: visualization. What would my perfect day look like? Where would I be? What car would I be driving? Etc. The mundane (or not so mundane) details — what do they look like? What’s the view of me, from the view of a drone hovering 5 or 10 feet above me?

That’s a tall challenge.

I got as far as glimpses of me in my car, driving. What’s playing though the sound system, the upholstery, the color of the car, what the weather’s like.

But my mind kept snapping back to the shit.

“When your mind is in the ditch . . . .” Thanks Bob, for the reminder.

I’m going to keep this up. Let’s see how it goes. It’s a lot better than working myself up into a froth over Them.

When I go out in the morning for my first workout of the day, I visualize my perfect day. Which, I have to say, includes running at 5 am. It’s awesome to be out before dawn. It’s such a hopeful, vibrant time—pretty much the 180 of the feeling I get from hearing Early Morning Rain.

If you’re out in the desert with a .22LR rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammo, you have a choice. You can start blazing away at every random rock you see, or you can set up targets and start aiming.

Blazing away just makes noise. If you like loud bangs and you think noise means progress, good for you. Not me. it’s a waste of time and ammunition.

Set the target. Then pull the trigger.

This has application in my daily life. My calendar shows blocks of time, what I’m going to work on, and what I intend to achieve in those blocks of time.

I might miss my target. But I have a target. I won’t waste that two hour block of time. I will get something accomplished. And it won’t be by luck.

If I focus all of my attention on one thing, I get massive results. I’m seeing that unfold in real time.

Do one thing. Avoid chasing the shiny, avoid having too many balls in the air, doing too many things at once. Avoid being busy.

Be ruthless. Do one thing. Over and fucking over and over again.

Look for like-minded people. Use the power of conformity in a good way to strengthen your resolve — and theirs — to stay on The Path.

In your own lives, remember that committing to a “good enough” plan, and executing it with zeal and ardor, is better than swerving all over life’s roads searching endlessly for the perfect solution and abandoning yesterday’s plan. Choosing a simple path and grinding away while tuning out distractions is the way to achieve most anything.

amplifiedbeing.com

Woke up a bit earlier than usual today. Ran a bit longer than usual today.

Bangin’.

Let’s pretend. Today’s visualization is me, a family man 200 years ago. It’s 1821 and we’ve trekked west to Ohio or Indiana. Found some land. Decided to stop and build a life. Right here.

Work hard. Every day. Monotonous. Taxing. Sweaty, dirty. No end of work in sight. I clear a small patch of forest for a rough cabin and a garden to grow some food. Hah! There are 200 acres of trees and stumps and rocks yet to clear.

Be that man. Pounding away at whatever needs to be done. Day after day, winter and summer, with just determination, sweat, and simple tools. Relentless. Resilient. Resourceful.

Be that man today.

I need it.

America needs it.

Here’s another tell. If you’re negotiating with yourself, if you’re explaining something to yourself . . . you’re avoiding something you should do.

I am feeling weak when I start to fantasize about things that are beyond my control and require assistance from the supernatural to achieve.

I do that a lot. I did it this morning on the dawn patrol. When I feel powerless and aggrieved I lapse into spinning fantastic yarns in my head about things that could only happen in fiction. Harry Potter-level fiction.

It’s because I’m feeling weak and inadequate. That’s when I imagine that I am endowed with magical powers. That’s when I feel righteous and I am the only person who can Right This Wrong.

Funny. As soon as I had that realization this morning and realized this was all made-up fantasy (as compared to real fantasy I guess!) my brain cleared and the rest of the walk was peaceful.

Let’s go back to square one, and remember Bob’s advice: stop talking to yourself and start talking to God.

I am the same inadequate, powerless person I am mid-fantasy. I always will be. And the fantasy I create in my mind always makes me feel worse. Why is that? Why do I feel unhappy in my imagined triumphs accomplished effortlessly by wielding unimaginable personal power?

At least have some inner peace, eh? Drop the fantasy. Maybe that inner peace will be a resource that I will be grateful to have cultivated at some future date.

Ask not to whom the ambulance speeds. It speeds to thee.

Day 71 of 75 Hard and I will start at Day 1 with my wife as soon as this cycle is complete.

The power of repetition. I’m doing the same damn thing over and over, and it has a visible impact.

What’s 75 more days to me? Nothing, in the big scheme of things. Everything, in reality.

Repetition + monotony = accomplishment.

From Tiny Habits:

1. Help people do what they already want to do.
2. Help people be successful.

He is talking of change in the context of families or communities. Why not apply that philosophy to customers of your business?

Day 101 of the 75 Hard program. I’m walking before dawn as I type this.

Onward. Let’s keep this streak alive.

Incidentally, ignore the debating society. From the moment I woke up (and even now, as I’m out, walking, in the dark) my brain started negotiations against the proposition of Going Outside.

Hah. Silly brain is silly. We walk before dawn.