I had the opportunity to spend early mornings doing my new jogging routine in two different cities in two days. The first was San Francisco and the second was San Diego. Although both beautiful cities with great histories, they each seem to have a different voice in the early morning hours. I jogged on the embarcadero in SF and the long harbor island strip in SD. The glorious city of San Francisco just feels different. As you see discarded people lying in the streets, stepping over human waste and seeing visible signs of abuse and neglect you cannot help but feel discouraged. In San Diego, although has its fair share of homelessness, the people I ran past waved hello and even smiled. Where in San Francisco there were downcast eyes and a fear of interaction – in San Diego people were pleasant and willing to look another person in the eyes.
The 365 Commitment has started to help me identify two distinct voices that I listen to in my mind all day. No, I do not have a mental illness – I am willing to bet these voices are there for you too. There is the discouraging one, that wants me to give up, to feel embarrassed about what I am doing, to reflect too much on what other people think of me. The other is positive, happy to be engaged, eagerly wants more interaction and actually wants to hear what other people really have to say rather then imagining what they might say.
Normally, I might let the negative voice take over for a while and control my emotions and send me into a downward slump for a while. However, as I wake each morning and contemplate how I can make today better – the other quieter more consistent voice comes alive and I start to feel better. This is a benefit, or a consequence of the 365 Commitment that I had not realized would happen.
I could probably spend some time philosophizing on the origins of these two voices. Satan versus Jesus, Ying and Yang, Base primal instinct for survival versus the equally primal instinct to improve and to grow. I am not sure it matters what you want to attribute this phenomena to. What matters is that you recognize that it exists and to not let the negative voice own you and control your outcome. I think I found the best way to combat that. The 365 Commitment.
Guy Reams (62)
365 Member
