Wow…it’s already been six months since my last post. I’m really good at this whole blogging thing…
I’ve put a lot of thought into things, but it always ends up just being, “Oh, yeah – I should write something.” And then I just don’t.
But so much has happened in the past six months, and even more to come.
A little over six months ago, I completed 75 Hard. It was a massive success for me. I learned a lot through that process, including a lot about myself. I have continued learning since then.
One of the lessons I learned is that when I put my mind to it, it is remarkably simple to completely transform myself. That’s a great thing to know, especially if there are times that I maybe feel down about myself. As soon as I choose to do so, and put in the hard work necessary, I can completely transform how I look and who I am.
But that ties into another lesson I have learned in the past six months since completing it. It is remarkably simple to completely transform myself. That knowledge makes it easy to think, “Oh, I can start tomorrow.”
Writing is something I truly love to do – though not evidenced by my actually doing it. Like getting into better shape, though, it is remarkably easy to do. Which means it is also remarkably easy to do…tomorrow.
But then six months go by. Posts aren’t made on the blog. The weight begins creeping up. While I am still down from when I started on July 5 last year, I am back into an area where my newer clothes are getting a bit too tight, I’m not feeling as great, in a word, I’ve become complacent.
You see, whether writing on the blog or maintaining my personal health and well-being – it is a daily grind. You have to show up every single day. That’s the problem with the simplicity of all of it. It is so simple that it is easy to think, “Oh, one day won’t matter.” And it’s true – one day does not matter in the long run. But when you string together enough “one days” it does matter. And at the same time one day does matter. It takes one day to begin a new streak. It also takes one day to break a streak. To break the momentum. And that momentum can be very hard to get back.
I have tons of reasons – there is always something that comes up. About a week after I completed 75 Hard, Abbie came down with Covid. It didn’t hit her too hard, but it’s still not nothing. Then I got it. It hit me quite a bit harder than her, though I didn’t miss a day of work. I’ve had colds and flus that were worse. I took a couple of days off after 75 Hard and was just getting back into the swing of it when I got Covid. That took me out of anything active for the better part of two weeks, and then I had to slowly ramp back up.
In October, for myriad reasons, we finally decided to build a house in Florida. That’s right! In the last 6 months there have been some major changes! We signed with a builder to build what is basically our dream house. We sold our house of 10 years, listing just before Thanksgiving and signing just after Christmas. December 2021 was a great time to sell a house!
We moved in with Abbie’s mom across the street – two adults and two kids moving from a 4-bedroom house to two bedrooms in a basement. It’s been an adjustment.
In a week and a half, we have our walkthrough. A week after that, we close.
Then goodbye, Minnesota!
Cramped space, big changes with the move, then planning an even bigger move – this has made it very difficult to get back into the routine. When we lived in our own house, we had more control over what food came into the house. But I know this is just an excuse. No matter what food is in the house, I still have control over what food I put into my mouth. Another lesson learned – I’m very good at making excuses for my poor decisions in what to eat.
I fell way behind in my pushup challenge. I’m into crunch time now, needing to average almost 500 pushups per day. I can’t afford to get sick again, which I did last week. It’s still a doable challenge. I have 75 days to do a little under 38,000 more pushups. For the past couple of weeks, I have been right around the pace that I need to hit.
But it’s a grind, for sure. A lot of days I don’t properly plan, and I end up doing pushups as we are watching a show before bed.
Which brings me to another lesson, closely tied with the others. During and since 75 Hard, I learned how much I can do if I put my mind to something, take the necessary actions, and most importantly do not compromise. If I tell myself I will do 500 pushups before I go to bed, I make sure to get it done. I don’t give myself a choice. If I am at 300 and I climb into bed, nobody makes me get up and finish the work I know I need to do – only me. But I have pulled myself out of bed to get those remaining pushups done.
I know that this is a bit of a rambling post, but I’m going to publish anyway – I have too many posts saved that don’t go anywhere because I tell myself how easy it is to write something, so I can just get it done later. Not today! Today, I am getting this posted because I have to post something and I won’t allow myself to compromise on that. Even if it’s not perfect.
I plan to have more in the coming days and weeks – to maybe do a series around our experience moving our family cross-country – some of the things we’ve had to figure out, the way we’ve done it. I’ve never done anything like this before.
Anyway, there it is – just some thoughts I’ve had rolling around that I told myself I had to post to the blog. I’d written a lot of this in another document in the past week or two, but never got around to finishing it. I allowed myself to compromise – to say, “Maybe later.” But not today. Today, I am embracing the grind of getting done what I need to. And that starts here.