#117 You are what you repeatedly do.
You are what you repeatedly do … or don’t do … A refresher on an approach to life.
Ryan Holiday – The Daily Stoic … reminded me of this in a podcast I listened to yesterday. And it was good to hear. It struck a chord and I could see that I had fallen away from some good habits and into some bad ones.
Now … a word of caution … this is not meant to be a commentary on what anyone else does, just me.
Humans are such creatures of habit. As an example, instead of immediately doing my workout when I woke up, I had gotten into the habit of making my coffee first then ‘meditating’ and slowly easing into my day. I can’t say exactly when this started, but I suspect it was during my recovery from pneumonia last year when I just wasn’t feeling that energetic in the morning. That was 6 months ago. And it really slowed me down. By the time I had the coffee, I might have started texting with people, or reading, or researching something … and all of a sudden, the workout might go by the wayside. And that would affect the rest of my day. Because I knew deep inside that I had allowed myself to ‘slide’ on what I should have done. And consciously or unconsciously, it bothered me.
‘Easing’ into my day isn’t good for me. I am much better off if I just do my yoga or workout right away and then with my fresh cup of coffee, get right to my work. I started doing that again 3 days ago and wow! I feel so much better.
My point is that we must remain aware of ourselves all the time. Self-awareness is something I may have touched on a time or two in the past 😊 … In times where we can find it easy to be scared, or in a slump, or perpetually lounging around the house in our pajamas binging with Netflix, it is more important than ever.
It is so easy to fall into bad habits and for them to become the ‘new normal’😊… (Two phrases that have been added to my growing and querulous zoo of pet peeves are ‘the American people’ and ‘the new normal’).
So again. One is what one repeatedly does (or doesn’t) do. Think about this in terms of your daily life and what you wish to improve about yourself. Life is continual work. Unfortunately, one cannot reach a goal and just coast. Reality isn’t like that. You have to accept that life requires constant work. Your habits, your character, your health and fitness, everything in fact. So BE AWARE 😊
An alternate way of looking at this might be …
If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten.
And now for something completely different.
https://gallagher.house.gov/about - Ryan Holiday was interviewing this Congressman. He sounded so intelligent and rational I added a link to his about page. This resumé, if true, is the kind of person we need in politics. A great pity we cannot attach ourselves to the politicians we trust, regardless of what district they represent. [Now – there is a thought].
To reiterate; I think we should bar any person from holding public office who hasn’t performed some kind of public service. Military, law enforcement, medical (including paramedics), or something of that type. As an adjunct, I suspect if the legal profession were in fact explicitly banned from holding public office, that would streamline things considerably 😊.
One key thing I heard him say in the interview is that he made a conscious decision to stay away from mainstream social media as much as he could and concentrate on 5 – 10 thousand words essays to communicate. Why? Because it meant he had to think more about what he was saying than if he a 100-character Tweet. Rousing thumbs up for that opinion! Of course, he freely admitted that it was harder to get people to read that type of communication.
Anyway … A short post on keeping track of what you are (or are not) doing …
This week I’m studying Residential Electrical wiring, Lean Construction theory, and researching the best lightweight trekking gear.
I hope you are all well, wherever you are ... keep your spirits up and stay in touch.