Beating the Circularity of Self-defeat

I delivered this message to our team this morning.

Mental health check for all of us who want to be better versions of ourselves:

In the midst of the challenges we are in, in all aspects of our lives, are you doing what you can to keep yourself mentally and emotionally strong? Are you feeding yourself even a snack of good emotional and intellectual input every day? Every day? Calisthenics for the mind. What helps you get through the crap? Time passing? Hoping that time will distance you from it, whatever "it" is? Sometimes that works, like with a cold. But the things we - and only we - can do suffer from our delays. They do not improve in our absence. They worsen with our neglect, making our mood deteriorate even more. That is a circular economy of self-defeat.

What stops that?

Inputs and action.

Inputs of good and stimulation and inspiration and explanation to help us find our strength and activate our energy. Not inputs of terror and trauma and negativity that feed our fears and sap our spirits.

We are not going to make any difference in interest rates. We are unlikely to move the needle back on inflation. Chances are good we won't change the course of layoffs at big corporations. Covid is still around.

But we can change our attitudes. We can take action and change our behaviors, even when it hurts. I see this in me, sometimes gaining momentum and sometimes falling back, but never ever going back into the darkness I have seen. I see it in you all, too, some finding their way up and regaining energy and momentum, some wavering, and some sliding down. It hurts to see the latter.

After four failed attempts at re-starting my physical fitness workout regimen with a new and enhanced one, I am now on Day 15 of a working model. I do my workouts at the end of the day, when all other things are done, after I've eaten and gotten cozy on the couch. It is often after 10 PM. Sometimes, it is well after midnight, and I want nothing less than to go out to the gym and get on a cold stationary bike or rowing machine or cold steel pull-up bar.

I am exceptionally good at telling myself how beneficial sleep is and that my ability to work out will be so much higher - tomorrow - when I am rested and I do not plop my butt on the couch after dinner and slink into sleepy comfort. Tomorrow, when all things will be different. Right.

No, I get up and first go into my office and do those dreary tasks that were too low on the list to be done in peak energy hours (tip), like grinding and sorting through 147 emails. Then I get up from the desk and head straight to the gym.

Straight to the gym.

Inside the gym, on the wall opposite the door is a big white board. On that it reads:

"You have a plan.

DO NOT THINK.

DO!"

So, I do. For the last 15 days, I have done. My previous record was 285 consecutive days on the previous insufficient plan.

But it is not about the total, it is about each one, each day, each little victory: the gains. It is about the mental as much as it is about the physical. I do not want to exercise at 1:15 in the morning when I need to wake up at 5:00, but I do. I do because that is the system I have found to work while I continue to gut it out to get our startup business to walk on its own. "When will that happen?" they ask. I don't know that answer and will not know it until the future is today. So I keep on.

I am studying two books now that may help you, too, if you are willing to take some rough talk and emotional content. If you are the type who does not seek comfort and convenience as your ultimate state, you may thrive on devouring these. I hear they are even better on the audio version:

1 - Link to Audible version of book "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins

https://www.audible.com/pd/Cant-Hurt-Me-Audiobook/B07KKMNZCH

2 - Link to Audible version of book "Never Finished - Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within" by David Goggins

https://www.audible.com/pd/Never-Finished-Audiobook/B0BJ34FWZ3

Keep grinding. You are not alone.

Larry