Your Regularly Scheduled Fork in the Road

You roll out of bed — it’s Saturday — the first of two work-sanctioned days of release after five days of grinding to meet another person’s vision for the company. It’s 8 AM and you have finished a cup (or two) of coffee. You’re day is off to a good start — you got up at a good time and generally feel well-rested. The coffee is kicking in and your body is almost ready to start moving. The sun is out when you look through the windows and you scroll through your phone looking for content to consume and notifications to respond to. The couch is comfortable and you’re still in your robe.

Now, it’s 9 AM and you’ve likely done the following: 1) read all the articles presented to you by google, 2) checked your emails and messages, and 3) written down some stuff you need to do today. However, you haven’t gotten off the couch. You are conscious of the hesitation as you sit there wondering if it’s a lack of energy or purpose that is leaving you feeling unsure about how to actually start your day.

I consider this to be the regularly scheduled fork in the road, where you have two choices for your day:

1) Go right: Get off the couch, start your to-do list, exercise, do work around the house, make meals

2) Go left: Get off the couch, eat the left over morning pizza, return the couch, watch YouTube videos until you’re bored out of your mind, waste more time scrolling past the same suggested articles recommended by google this morning, binge watch a program on Netflix

Adding to the problem, if you are someone with some unhealthy addictions in life, then going left probably also includes over indulgence in whatever vice you may have. Because of this, you are familiar with the feeling of coming to this fork in the road and know the weight of the decision. Even for folks without any additional vices, the outcome is more or less known.

If you go right for the day, then you will likely end up completing everything you intended and have some time left over that you can still spend relaxing before the next day.

If you go left — ugh — the day will go by and you won’t have much to show for it. By the end of the day, you may feel lethargic and mildly disappointed for taking this easier path. You might try to argue with yourself that you “needed” that day off to recharge, despite knowing that recharging doesn’t have to mean sitting in your robe all day binging content streamed to any number of high-tech screens you have in the house.

My obvious suggestion?

Take the right path — get up and start moving. Use whatever method you need to get going. A few that come to mind are the following:

• Count to 5 and when you get to 5, get up and do something on your to-do list now
• Do the simplest productive task possible, such as brushing your teeth just to get off the couch and avoid walking into the kitchen for that morning pizza
• Turn on some music to help change your state of mind and motivate you

Really, however you decide, you can overcome this moment where you feel like your whole day holds in the balance. I know it’s easier said than done. We have all taken the left path many times — whether it was because we were hungover, unmotivated, or felt defeated by one of life’s many pressures. But, over a long period of time, if you take the right path more than the left, you will find yourself defaulting to the better version of yourself on that day. Taking the right path will become habit and you will be that object in motion which stays in motion. So, stop reading articles about how this familiar fork in the road and figure out whatever trick it takes to get up and go.

If you found the material in the article resonated with you or you want to discuss anything further, please reach out to me over medium. I would be happy to provide more personalized advice to help you start taking the right path more often that the left.