What this 365 commitment has encouraged me to do is to slowly raise the minimum. This has been a subtle thing. I do not believe I conceived of the idea ahead of time – the concept has come through iteration to come to a crystal clear thought this morning.
My minimum acceptable standard for a day has raised quite considerably since day 1. 147 days later, I have a hard time conceiving what I was doing before this commitment. I must have been lost really. Now, everyday I have raised the standard of what I expect. Even late last night, or very early this morning I was focused on meeting the minimum standard.
What is funny is that I felt like a bit of a failure this last few days. I have been so busy that I have not had the time to really put any quality behind my commitments, but the important point is that I did them. I may not have one them well – but I did them. That is the point. I am just reflecting on that this morning and in an attempt to make myself feel better am reviewing my progress.
Even though I did not do things at a level that I think is great, I did them and I got it done. I spent time reflecting on what is important, I spent time in prayer and meditation reviewing that commitment, I ran, I did pushups, situps, and squats. I measured and recorded everything I ate, I wrote a blog – even if it was just a few words. So despite the fact that I was discouraged about my overall performance – I can look back in astonishment at how 147 days ago what my minimum day would have looked like.
147 days ago I would not have contemplated what was important, I would not have recorded that in a journal, I would not have been keeping a blog, I would not have got any exercise and I would have eaten bad food without a thought. So yes, compared to that, my new minimum is quite incredible.
People have always told me that you have to do things slowly, in increments, to ease into it. I never believed them. I always thought I could overcome and do it all at once. That I was going to be the special one. Well have several decades at failing at that idea, I have finally learned that what people have always told me is true. Slowly, with deliberate consistency add good habits until the person you built is a force of amazing strength because of a lifetime of persistence toward building good habits.
Guy Reams (147)
365 Member
