WebsWriMo: A short-term experiment
Like most people I have a love-hate relationship with social media. One of the better things to come out of it is a group of ladies I belong to who share an enjoyment of all things nerdy and fitness and we’re all working on building a better us. Someone recently asked, “There are eating plans for nutrition, workout plans for physical fitness, what’s the mindset equivalent?” I thought this was a great question and wondered what I would put in a 30 day mindset module. The next 30 days of posts will be that module. This also happens to coincide with NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month. While I won’t be writing a novel, I do like the idea of doing something with intention for a short burst of time. So here we go! You will need a journal of some kind for these 30 days. It can be a plain spiral notebook, the notes app on your phone, your planner, or a pocket Moleskine. It doesn’t matter, just make sure you have it with you 80% of the time.
Day 1 — Resetting what is default
At the heart of any long term change is resetting what your default is. Take Jules. Jules is perpetually late. Her friends know she’s call five minutes before the time they said they would meet to tell them something came up or she just lost track of time but she’ll be there in 20. While they might laugh it off or just chalk it up to Jules being Jules, it can present a real problem in a professional setting. Another example is Arjun. Arjun feels sluggish all the time. His nutrition habits are ok and he walks a lot because he lives in the city, but his sleep habits aren’t the greatest. He stays up late playing Fortnite and usually runs on 4–5 hours of sleep. He doesn’t feel like that will help his energy levels much though so he’s resigned himself to a steady diet energy drinks. Jules and Arjun both have a default setting. For Jules it’s being late and for Arjun it’s staying up late, feeling sluggish, and a steady diet of energy drinks. We often resign ourselves to believing these are fixed qualities about ourselves. They’re not though. They’re habits and behaviors that are malleable. In order to change them though, we have to 1) realize what the default behavior is that’s preventing us from achieving our ideal state and 2) invest in a plan to gently alter that behavior.
Behavior is like a meteor. A small but consistent nudge can drastically alter the course. Today, I want you to write down one ideal state. Maybe you’re tired of being tired so you want to find a way to have more energy or get control over your anxiety. Maybe you want to become a black belt in karate or run a marathon. Maybe you want to show up on time, deal with your email inbox, declutter your house, or spend less time cooking. Whatever it is, write it down and then observe and record the default habits that you think might be preventing you from reaching that ideal state. Stop there. You don’t have to do anymore. This shouldn’t be a labor intensive exercise. Come back tomorrow for the next entry!
