2023 Goals
Consistency is Key
To defeat the enemy, you need to have a plan. To defeat the enemy within; you need to make a plan both for yourself and against yourself. The Sloth inside knows that whatever I say and whatever I do, it has the upper hand. It is far more persuasive than my motivation will ever be. Far more constant. Far more consistent.
I have often remarked that the only thing I have ever been consistent at, is being inconsistent. I have started dozens of fitness plans, diets, hobbies, and sports over the last two decades. A few have stuck for life. Many have lasted a few months but the majority of been consigned to the history book of false -starts within a matter of days or weeks.
To defeat an adversary like the Sloth, I need to get organised. I need to Instil a bit of self-discipline. I need to become consistent. The first goal is to understand what resources I require for the battle. To identify both the internal and external resources that are available to me. Sharpen them up and get them ready for the fight. The first weapon I’ve started to train with is journaling. After all, the pen is mightier than the sword.
The process I have employed for my introduction to journaling is called The Artist’s Way. The Artist’s Way was developed by Julia Cameron as a process for removing creative blocks for artists, writers, or anyone who’s creativity has stopped flowing. I heard of the process via an elite level triathlete who had used the process as a catalyst to switch from an unfulfilling career in finance, to become a triathlon world champion.
The process is simple. The blocked creative must read one chapter of the Artist’s Way book each week. The creative must absorb the weekly lessons and follow the challenges set for the week. Most importantly, the creative must write in a journal every day for twelve weeks. The journal entries must be the first thing the creative does each morning and must run to a minimum of three A4 sized pages of handwritten text. All writing should be written as a stream of consciousness. Not structured, or pre-meditated. Whatever is going through the mind of the creative that morning must ends up on the page. This process of daily journaling is referred to as Morning Pages.
I have now completed the first sixty days of the eighty-four-day process of writing my Morning Pages. Sixty days of spending a minimum of forty-five minutes per day, unloading my thoughts onto the page. Sixty days of getting up at 6am to write alone at the kitchen table while the sun comes up. Sixty days of consistency.
The process has been highly rewarding. My mind has quietened down. For the first time in memory, I feel like I am in control of my thoughts. Anxiety, distraction, and my inner monologue have been reduced. Distanced. Not entirely removed but reduced to a level where they no longer cloud my mind. I feel like I have emerged from a thick fog that I have been frantically trying to claw my way out of for years.
This stillness and clarity has led me to realise that I need to make some changes. To be more proactive in life. To be less Sloth-like. My morning pages have helped me to identify the things that I really care about and the things that I’d like to change.
The output of all this internal auditing and writing, has been development of three key priority areas that I’d like to focus on.
1- Enjoy time with friends and family
2- Get fit and Healthy
3- Learn more and create more
To support my priorities, I followed a process that I have used during my career for building key priorities into goals. I set systems behind the goals to imbed them into my daily, weekly, and monthly routines. I also included a description of why I have chosen each goal and how the specific goal contributes to my priorities. To remind myself why each goal is important and how it relates to the priority I have set. The result is a plan.
The foundation of my plan is a good morning routine. The ideal morning routine that I have developed over the last sixty days allows me to tick of most of my daily goals before I start my working day. It goes like this:
6:00 Wake up, weigh in and get dressed.
6:05 Journal for 45 Minutes.
7:50 Meditate for 10 minutes, using headspace.
7:05 Wake the children up. Get them ready. Take them to school. 55 minutes.
8:00 Morning run 40 minutes. Always with the dog and usually with a friend.
8:45 Shower.
9:00 Plan Day- include all work activities and a list of work priorities. Write out all personal activities to ensure they are scheduled.
I can generally stick to this routine for four out of five workdays. I modify it slightly to accommodate the one day a week when I go to the office. This is achieved by removing my morning run and adding a weights or yoga session in the evening. At weekends, I can let myself be a bit more flexible with timings as the children don’t need me to take them to school.
The morning routine is at this point almost fully automated. It’s not a struggle to get out of bed. The process runs itself on autopilot without me having to think. I have almost made it to the magical target of sixty-six days of repeating the same process, after which point repetition will hopefully become habit. Six more days before my morning routine will pass the theoretical threshold from repetition to habit. Once my morning is fixed, I will be free to concentrate on implementing more good habits.
Six more days until the first battle in the war of Man vs Sloth is over. Hopefully man will stand victorious.