The Daily - September 13-14, 2023 - Uneventful Days, Thoughts on Doing Hard Things

9/13/23 - Wednesday 60 minutes of bike / strength and I’m now outside with my coffee. It’s another blue sky, cool morning.

 
I haven’t been sleeping great and ended up taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon.

 
I did laundry, grilled up a bunch of meat, had dinner with Scott and we went for a nice walk.

 

 
9/14/23 - Thursday

 
Great workouts this morning - 45 minute Intervals with Arms class then 30 laps in the pool. Also spent 20 minutes in the sauna.

 
I enjoyed coffee outside then checked in on Janice’s cats. In the afternoon I spent time painting outside, using a new filbert brush and really liking the results.

 
After dinner, Scott and I went for a nice walk through Porter park. His working means we spend more time together once he gets back home.

 

 
I follow James Clear and subscribe to his weekly newsletter. One of today's newsletter subject touched upon doing Hard things.

 

“When you're doing something hard, focus on the fun part. Many people make a subtle mistake, which is they emphasize how difficult it is to do something. They tell themselves writing is hard or running is hard or math is hard. And so on. The dominant thought in their mind is that this is hard to do. And it is true these things (and many others in life) can be challenging.

 

 
Meanwhile, people who thrive in a given area are often emphasizing a completely different aspect of the experience. They are thinking about how it feels good to move their body rather than telling themselves exercise is hard. Or, perhaps, they aren't really thinking much at all. They may slip into a trance during their run, a meditative rhythm.

 

 
But what they are almost certainly not doing is repeating a mental story about how hard it is to do the thing. Their dominant thought is about some element of the experience they enjoy. They are working hard, but with the fun part in mind."

 
Yes - totally agree! What drives me to work out when I don’t feel like it is knowing how good I’ll feel afterwards. I think about the experience - the things I’ll hear, see, smell and how those experiences are beautiful and precious. Stars in the sky. Sunrise, clouds, sparkles of sunshine. In the pool, there’s the mesmerizing play of light against blue water, the waves, the cool wash of water over one’s skin. Believe me, there are many days when I don’t want to get into that water but I always feel better at the end of the swim. So I don’t dwell on how hard it is or will be, I just go and do.