I fucking did it again. I thought I learned my lesson. I feel better when I am active, eat clean, connect with others, and am busy. It took many stubborn years of avoidance to figure this out, but I did. Or so I thought.
I spent a month in New York last year and had both small and large adventures every day. Each one was some form of active personal growth. When I returned home, I was in a funk. How do you bounce back from an adventure? Not the way I did, that is for damn sure. I did not spend Sunday morning chopping vegetables. I did not go for morning or afternoon walks. I did not go to the gym or take a single yoga class. I watched tv while playing on my phone at the same time so I didn’t even enjoy the show I was attempting to watch. I ordered shitty food from Uber Eats. My Apple watch thought I was dead.
At one point, I was lying in my bed and had the thought that “if this is going to be my life, I might as well kill myself”…I am not now, and have never been a suicidal person, but I recognized what I was doing wasn’t living. I needed to build some momentum and take that first step. Literally and figuratively. So, I started walking…and walking…and walking.
Ten miles a day.
I was rebuilding myself as one would build a home; walking became the foundation. The framework began to go up as I started to expand my mind by listening to educational and motivational podcasts on my walks. I started prepping healthy meals on Sunday and all of a sudden had drywall. I brought in experts to help with the counters, floors, plumbing, and electrical work as I participated in a 30-day group coaching program. Before I realized it, I only needed to add paint and finishing touches and started doing yoga. Like a good general contractor, I created a spreadsheet to track my progress and, unlike most construction projects, I finished ahead of schedule.
How do you build a house? Brick by brick.
What is your first brick? Your first step? Your first move to get going again?
It is the 1st Monday of the 2nd half of 2020. If you read this, you laid down the first brick. Grab the next one.