Over an entire year since I’ve written a post for this site. There are multiple reasons which are way to long of stories for right now. Regardless, it doesn’t make me happy. I like writing, it’s something I want to do and it’s something I want to get better at. Writing is a habit that I want to get back into. I’ll explain how I got here in just a second.
Ever since I graduated in May of 2012, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to do anything. Work encompasses at least 40 hours a week and the rest I usually play video games or just sleep in and don’t do anything. That’s the easiest thing to do but I hate myself for it. I wish that I could find the motivation to get up, work out, write more, do just about anything other than nothing.
The weird part is that I know that all of this other stuff is good for me. I know that exercising would make me feel better, I know that getting up earlier would make me more productive, I know that writing and reading is going to help me become a better person and further my professional self. Why do I completely disregard the facts and continue to be a useless sloth outside of work? It’s something I’m trying to figure out and trying to fix.
The reason I’m writing this today is that I’ve been trying to find different ways to motivate myself. Yesterday I found an interesting article about the Seinfeld Strategy for overcoming procrastination. Every other article I’ve read has made sense but none have hit home yet like this one. So I’m giving it a try. What have I got to lose? 15 pounds maybe??
The Seinfeld Strategy, as described by Mr. Clear in his article, is focusing not on results but specifically on consistency of the process. Clear describes how many people get discouraged by a bad day, a bad workout or not seeing the results they were looking for right away. Jerry Seinfeld himself said that the important part isn’t that you perform well every day, it’s the consistency of trying. That’s how you will build the good habit of that activity and then the results will come.
I am usually the person that will set the super high, completely unachievable goals like write eight blog posts, workout for four hours and get to Challenger tier every day. This never works because it’s impossible to do every single day and still maintain a normal life. I need to refocus and look at getting consistent with the process before I bump up to a habit that is a little harder to maintain. I don’t want just a single, intense workout once a month, I would rather have a smaller, manageable workout every day and then move up. That would be much more beneficial to me.
This being the case, I have set much lower goals for myself every day. If I can get in the habit of doing each of these every day, it shouldn’t be hard to bump them up slowly to things that will make a bigger impact. I plan to do each of these things every day:
- Get to 4,000 steps. I have had my step goal set at 8,000 since the beginning of the year. This would require going to the gym or a special circumstance to complete. Not something doable each day. 4,000 steps is much more manageable but on those days when I’m not working will still require I take the dog on an extra walk or move a little bit more.
- Do 10 push ups and 10 sit ups. Much more doable than going to the gym and doing a full workout every day. Obviously I will still be going when I can but at least this is a little extra movement every day.
- Stretch every morning. I’ve been really sore lately, hopefully this will help. I’ve also read that it helps you wake up and get motivated and moving for the day. Hopefully a good mental and physical habit to start.
- Write something. I’m not planning on writing something as long or in-depth as this every single day but I need to write something. It might be a quick journal entry about my day, it might be a love poem for Katie, it might be a tutorial for creating the perfect password. Whatever it is, I am challenging myself to write every single day. I feel like I’ll be using this blog a lot more often.
- Take a picture. This is my random and fun goal for the day. I have the Nokia Lumia 1020 which has a 41 megapixel camera. I want to use it to take some great pictures and get into the habit of using the technology I own instead of just letting it go to waste. I also think photography would be a really fun, inexpensive hobby that would get me outside and walking around.
Think I can manage and do these things every single day? I sure hope so.
Inflecto Vita.
