In my past life I dealt with a lot of dead-enders–people who no longer believed they were capable of greatness, let alone getting out of bed. I hit that point in my life about two years ago and tried to recall all the things I’d learned from teaching them and interacting with them. I learned it was largely a matter of lifestyle choices. They made so many bad ones that they no longer understood how to make good ones. In some cases, they’d found shortcuts to pleasure or happiness and having found the easy way, no longer wanted to work for it. I’ve come back around to that way of thinking myself as of late. It was a tough thing to recognize that I don’t really want to put in the hours for the things I really want in life. It is tough to realize that I’ve been looking for shortcuts for a very long time. On the other hand, it is a good moment for me, because I can fall back on those teachings and learnings and recognize what it is going to take to be the best version of myself.
It is going to take a lifestyle change.
The first thing I do in the morning is make a big pot of coffee, load it up with creamer and power on Minecraft. I call it my creation ritual. There are a number of things wrong with this ritual that I can adjust to move closer to the life I’m destined to live. The first is to change the creamer. Coffee creamer limits (and even counteracts) the healthy effects of coffee. So, I’ve been researching alternatives. Coconut oil and vanilla extract are an option. Likewise, diving headlong into crafting is a fun start to the day, but why not modify the ritual by making a ‘to do’ list for the day before crafting, and then spend ten minutes exercising before crafting. Then the minecraft becomes a reward for positive behaviors and not just an expectation.
Little steps add up to a change of lifestyle. Nobody gets there overnight, but we are so used to seeing the finished product that we forget the work it took to get there. That’s why we love shortcuts. It’s like a good friend said (and i’m paraphrasing here), Nobody remembers the string in a pearl necklace.
Some Thoughts:
- I wish I was thoughtwired. I wish the words that entire my mind could be instantly stored in .doc format to be worked through later. If someone out there is into brain-sensing tech, please make a thought wire. The thing is, I lose so much really rich fiction and ideas just walking around in the world and thinking up stuff without access to something to write it down the way I thought it. I’m talking in terms of speed here. You can voice record on your phone, but that takes time to load up and is tough to do while driving. Sadly, I get a lot of good ideas while driving to and from work…