Seriously.. do something..

 In my last instalment on this blog I spoke of doing something and doing it often rather than thinking about it, waiting, processing and doing it once perfectly.  This is based on advice from a friend and from reading an incredible book called "Atomic Habits".  

Well here we are a week (or 2?) later and the instinctive pause has happened again.  I wonder why that is?  As I process my desire to write, I ask myself, as I ask about many things that require repetition where does this pause, or lack of consistent practice come from?  Why does it happen?  

Part of me thinks this happens as it's natural.  Being intentional is not natural.  Our nature tends to be what I call "the drift".  We don't naturally live with intention.  That takes discipline which requires effort and a deep focus.  In general, we live for the drift and when we drift we don't drift toward health, focus, discipline, and the things that feed into us.  When it comes to eating, my drift is the path of least resistance which tends to be what comes easy and not what is healthy and takes some time to prepare.  Ease over effort is my drift.  As it pertains to physical health, "netflix and chill" is the path of least resistance and my drift as oppose to getting up, putting on the shoes and taking that walk or going to that gym or taking some time on the treadmill.  Drift is easy.  Drift is not healthy.  So what do we do?  Not to sounds like a broken record, but we must "do something".  

Seriously... Do something.. 

Don't allow the drift to take over... it's easy and it will creep in should you let it.. heck you don't even have to let it.. Just do nothing.  

Case and point, I want to write and I talked about writing and then I stopped writing.  I want to continue in my fitness journey that I was extremely successful with last summer and I drift into old habits or toward the ease of no habits.  

So here's my encouragement for you and challenge for me as I clearly need the push and then the push and then the push.  

Keep doing something.  It doesn't have to be the end result.  In fact, it shouldn't be all the way to the end.  Do something that sets you up to do the next bite size thing that leads eventually toward the end goal.  Crock pot instead of microwave.. 

You got this.  We got this.  Seriously, just do something.  

Grace and love. 

-S-

Just Do Something.

Obligatory, "I can't believe it's been 3 years" comment. 
But seriously.  I can't believe it's been 3 years.  

I guess nothing significant has happened since 2020 so I've had nothing to write about.  That's too bad, but at least I have decided to pick the typewriter back up.  

Last week, Alisha and I were on a vacation for our 10th anniversary and we were blessed to visit a wonderful resort in Cuba.  While there, I picked up a book that I bought with the grandest of intentions as I began it, but as is the case with a lot of things I do, I started strong and fizzled out quickly.  This bugs me about me if I am honest. So I took advantage of our time away and picked the book back up and brought it with us with the "intention" (there's that word again) to dive back in and hopefully nibble away at it to try and get myself back in the habit of reading again.  Well, I didn't nibble away at this book.  I DEVOURED it.  I had about a third of the book read before we left for vacation and it was done the day before the last day of our 7 day vacation.  This was not a thin book (at least by my standards) either, and I couldn't put it down.  

What was the book you ask? That's a great question and I am happy to answer.  It was "Atomic Habits by James Clear" which speaks of and teaches that small changes can have massive results in how we lead our lives and develop the habits that we want and lose the habits that we want nothing to do with.  So much meat and it is a book that I will definitely have to pick up again as it all certainly bears repeating in my brain.  

One of the points that stood out to me, and there were a lot was something like this.  JUST DO SOMETHING.  Long story short he told a story of a university professor who was teaching a photography class and had a semester long project for his class.  He divided the class in two groups and both groups had the same goal for the end of the semester to achieve an A in the course, but each group were to take a very different approach.  The goal was to take that "perfect picture" that captures that magic moment or image that was simply beyond words.  The difference was in their approach.  Group A didn't have a specific amount of pictures they needed to take.  They just needed to find that moment and capture it.  Group B's approach was to take as many pictures as they were able and of the piles of pics, they needed to find the one that was the one.  

What the professor found was very interesting.  At the end of the semester he found that group A didn't have the same quality that group B did.  Why is this?  While group B took hundreds and hundreds of pictures, many of which were not great, the practice and formation of their skills that were developed in the taking of many, many pictures developed (pun intended) their skill to a point that made their end result absolutely stunning.  

On the other hand, those that just had to find and take the perfect pictures didn't end up taking the same volume of pictures as they used their time "looking" for that picture and "waiting" for that moment in the hopes that they'd catch it, but without the repetition, they didn't get the same stunning results. 

So what's the point Scottie? Sorry... Thought that was obvious as it's my title... JUST DO SOMETHING. 
So many times in life, I've set goals and not acted on it as I'd either set the goal too big and stopped as I bit off more than I could chew OR over thought to the point of trying to figure out what I was suppose to do big picture and have it paralyze me from doing anything.  

What the author illustrated (and my friend JON HURD) as encouraged me to do in things that I want to do is "just do something."  Even little steps are better than doing nothing and being stagnant.  Small steps toward health and repeated often are better than planning without action.  10 minutes (or even 2) of walking or exercise and repeated consistently is better than sitting idle and doing nothing.  Writing a little everyday in a consistent manner is better than doing nothing.  What the author, professor and hopefully me someday observes is that action and movement creates more action and movement and as you do small things consistently, habits form and excellence is unintentionally (eventually intentionally) formed.  

So the question for me is for you is this; what thing (big or small) are you doing today?  Today I wrote this as a reminder for me and as an encouragement for you.  JUST DO SOMETHING.. and then tomorrow, do something and the next day, also do something.  You got this!  

Appreciate you's!