I know how it feels when youāre on the ropes, when life has gone sideways, and itās hard to stay on track. Perhaps it seems there is no track. When youāre in new, ominous territory.
Meanwhile, your days are still a flurry of hither and thither. You get to the end of it, and wonder what happened. What got done? You wonder whose day it was really, and for what?
I remember being in the bunker a few years back. I had come to a place where life kept dropping bombs. I was hunkered down, dazed by the explosions. Wondering, what now? It seemed everything was in a state of going, or having gone bad.
Alone, alienated, and full of anxiety about the future, I woke up one morning and decided I needed a walk. āProbably better to do calisthenics or something more rigorousā I told myself, but for whatever reason, I shut up the āshouldā in me and started walking.
It was cold, I didnāt know my way around the neighborhood. Iād been living in a friends trailer, and had now graduated to another friendās empty house that was on the market for sale. Heād offered to let me stay there until he could find a buyer.
My thoughts that morning were a mish mash that bounced from concerns about my children to the lawyers, to the funny noise my car was making, but I walked. A couple of miles later, I finished and headed for work, and another worrisome day of problems, some new, some old. I knew it would be a while before the madness would subside, but at the end of that day I could tell myself, āat least I took a walk.ā
The next day I walked again.
The next week I began to jog instead of walk.
Eventually, I had a full fledged morning exercise routine that Iāve now maintained for years.
I know that sprints are all the rage these days, and they can be helpful at times, but this is a different approach. Iām not in a hurry.Ā Consistency, not urgency, is the key.Ā Weāre all pulled in many directions every day; this is a way of pulling myself back to what matters. Over time it becomes gratifying as I begin to see I can rely on myself to do it daily. Itās a sense that Iām pecking away, methodically, at something important.
At the beginning of the month, I pick no more than 3 areas I want to give attention. Every day for 30 days, preferably mornings before āthe pull beginsā I take each item on the list and ask, āDid I address this yesterday? How might I address it today?ā