The man who dawdled his life away versus the alternative...

(Click on the title of the post to see the whole post.)

There is a man who has lost all semblance of living intentionally, dropping into living reactively, governed by impulses and whims, unquestioned false beliefs, by circumstances, by other people, by people pleasing, by the monkeys in his mind, by seeking relief or adventure or "possibility", by regretting, hoping but not doing "the work" necessary to build the skills that will cause the results...  But he fails to see that this is not working to get him to where he wants to be, to get him out of a state of being that is run by fear and deeply mired in anxiety.

This man "dawdles" for an hour in the morning before he even starts his day, often reading the Wall Street Journal when he has no application or use for it and then going surfacely through other things that seem smart (but which he does not really harvest), pretending as if he will do something with it or pretending that he is still going to be a powerful businessman or investor....

The man is living the unthinking life, the unintentional life, the passive victim life...

Instead, he needs to be actively noting what isn't working, writing about it so he can go deeper, solving it and learning what does work.

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We are all, to some degree, prone to fall into such senseless, reactive ways of living.

I, for instance, noticed that I'd let myself fall into a pattern that didn't work well, though I rationalized it as being workable, for awhile.   I had gone from a pattern of working out in the early morning to a pattern of whimsy and thinking that I'd just let my creative juices be used to the maximum by just writing, until I ran out of that energy and would then "get around to" exercising.  But soon exercising drifted into optional timing, sometimes going into the late afternoon and occasionally being dropped, based on low energy, convenience, or whatever... 

One of my rationalizations for just going directly into my golden hours right away was that if I exercised for an hour when I was sharp I would lose a golden hour.  Now that is "kinda" rational.  But it is not true.  

I had forgotten that the effect of exercise in the early morning is to increase metabolism to live at a higher level of energy but also to up all the "good chemicals" that have us at our higher psychological functioning where we not only feel better but can more powerfully think and become more in charge of our lives.  Sustaining the latter state is a key to being in charge of one's life.  And the effect of getting my momentum going earlier in the day is huge. 

I had forgotten that leaving such essential things as exercise at the mercy of time being available later, "if it fits in", does not work!!!.  I had to remind myself that I must insert first things first before the onslaught of other things that begin in the normal day - or, if I don't, the battle will often be lost. 

Of course, there is a lot more we could write about this, but the point here is that exercise to launch the day is of great positive power.  It is worth giving up a bit of my dawdling in the morning or some golden time for other things of benefit.  Though my simple primitive mind misses the "comfort" of dawdling, I remind myself that I will feel so much better for so much more of the day and that I will live a better life for having done it - I even comfort my primitive mind by telling it we can do an easy work out if need be and we can enjoy the reading of a book from which to harvest more of life.  

In order to do the exercise first thing in the morning, I had to reinstitute a fixed routine that would be clearly leading me into doing the exercise.  So, I wrote out exactly what I would do in the morning, so that at least my primitive mind had instructions of what to do next and then next and then next... 

And, as the coup de grace, in a sense, I set my timer for the exact amount of time I could spend on breakfast and other "getting ready" for the day activities - so that the trigger of the alarm going off started me right away out the door to exercise at the gym (2 blocks away or I would have bought equipment for the home).   (I bought 8 timers, to add to the two timers I already had, cheap digital timer alarms so that one is at every place I might sit down or be - so they will be convenient and more usable and even serve as a reminder to control my time and not let myself drift into, well, "the drift" of unconsciously and randomly living life.)

This works.  

And remembering that all successful people are successful because they notice what isn't working, learn what it takes to make things work, and then immediately or ASAP solve the "not working" problem!!!!!