I am in the midst of the 75 Hard program again. My life works better when I do the simple, daily tasks that it requires.
Specifically, I am in Phase 2 of the year-long arc of the program, which means accomplishing 30 days in a row of the standard requirements:
- Two 45 minute workouts every day
- A progress picture every day
- Drink one gallon of water every day
- Maintain a diet every day
- No cheat meals, no alcohol, every day
- Read 10 pages of a nonfiction book every day
Failure to hit the mark on any one of these means you reset the clock to Day 1.
It’s the little things that trip me up. I find that fascinating.
At Day 16 I didn’t take a picture, because I kept telling myself I would do it when I got home from the second workout. I didn’t. I walked through the door an completely forgot. (Now, the picture is the first thing I do in the morning when I wake up).
Start at Day 1.
Today at Day 21, I picked up the book I am reading, and from the way I organize my bookmarks I could tell that I had read 8 pages the day before—not 10. Clearly I had spaced out. I probably got up in the middle of my reading to get a cup of coffee, or maybe had a conversation with my wife. Whatever happened, I did not remember to go back after the interruption to complete the reading.
Start at Day 1.
What’s really interesting is that I don’t feel a sense of failure or shame at resetting the clock. I didn’t fail. I learned something interesting about myself.
Life is not a contest. Life is not a race. Life is not a series of accomplishments where you ring the bell to announce success—in the sense that success means “finished.”
One side of the coin says “finished” and the same side of the same coin says “starting.”
There is no other side of the coin.
Anyway. What did I learn about myself here?
- Look at how I don’t even care about the arbitrary Day 1 stuff. I know what needs to be done, I do it. Yay me.
- I am easily distracted. So have less shit going on, because that means fewer distractions. Say “no” a lot.
- The big, hard stuff is easy. It’s the small stuff. Sweat the small stuff. Love the small stuff.
The still, small voice has spoken. Listen to what it says.