Daily growth blog #10/365 | Every drop counts. Does it really?
This morning, I was sitting outside the gym, after a short but sweaty workout, just catching my breath. I did not have a very good workout. I like to get in quite early before any one else gets to the gym and today I was sleepy & tired because I slept very late. I was also in a rush, because I had to get somewhere right after breakfast. I decided to haul myself to the gym to do a quick workout because I know if I don’t do it in the morning, I won’t really find time during the day. All in all, I wasn’t feeling it!
As I sat there, having a sip of water, my mind started telling me that it was a stupid idea to come to the gym this morning.
I said, ‘Hey every drop counts’.
My mind said, ‘No, it doesn’t, long & concerted efforts, in a disciplined manner, count more. Today, it would have been better to just rest, sleep, and take a break’.
I was almost ready to agree with my mind and berate myself even more when suddenly, I saw a ripple of water on the table in front of me. There was a layer of water on the outdoor table (since it had rained the night before). I was wondering what caused the ripple in the otherwise stagnant layer of H2O, when I saw it again — a drop of water fell from the roof on to the table, created a tiny ripple again, agitating the calm molecules. This happened again and again.
What a beautiful moment.
This was perhaps the fastest the universe has ever come to my rescue and explained something to me, when my pessimistic mind was ready to misguide me.
That was it, every drop might not move mountains, but every drop creates a ripple in an otherwise dead surface, and makes it more ‘alive’. Isn’t that enough? We don’t need to create large scale impact with every action we take. We will have bad days, less-than-perfect workouts and we will screw up our project deliverables every now and then. Does not change anything. The important thing is to learn, overcome obstacles (our mind) and keep on moving. No?
I started thinking more about this concept and was looking back at what’s worked best for me. Here are four top items that I could think of right now. The four drops in the ocean of progress.
Drop #1- Staying focused
Letting go off distractions and staying focused is one of the hardest but most impactful drops in the ocean, at least for me. I have quite the excited mind and it likes to do multiple things at the same time. As I’ve shared earlier, it is quite productive when you’re managing a team and have umpteen tasks to get to, but quite counter-productive when you have to complete tasks yourself.
With Headspace, quick check-ins with my mind and a workspace that reduces clutter & promotes ‘focus’, I’m getting better at this, slowly but steadily.
Drop #2- Setting ourselves up for success
While staying focused is a good way to create long term change in behaviour and getting tasks done. We should try and supplement this with small tweaks to set our ‘future’ selves up for more success.
It can be as simple as keeping the phone away from the bedside table so that we do ‘get up’ to go switch off the alarm in the morning. Or, we can choose to keep our gym/running shoes near our bed so that when we wake up, we see them and know we’ve got to get going soon. Or, we can finish presentations a day in advance so we can take feedback, incorporate the feedback and make our ‘future’ selves better prepared to handle the BIG client pitch.
For me, in this journey of writing for 365 days, when I started I would get to my LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter right at the end of the day. This went on for almost 9 days (yesterday) and I was starting to feel stressed about ‘writing’. Why? Because I’m a morning person! I am super energetic and fully functional at 6am in the morning. At 9pm though, I’m a very different person (Yes I aged quite fast). And I was getting to my blog at around 1030pm, on average. After a week or so of doing this, today morning I decided to change this. I decided to set myself up for success by moving the content tasks to early morning. So now, I’ll do my workout, Duolingo, and sit down with my protein shake in front of my laptop — LinkedIn, Twitter and Blog Structure to be set within 45minutes flat. If I have another hour or so, I’ll finish the blog too. If I don’t I’ll get to it through the day. 5–10 minutes, here and there. (It is 2.40pm right now, and I had a short break before lunch so I thought of getting to this now). I’m already feeling excited that tonight I won’t have this on my head, and I’ll enjoy a good family evening and watch a movie perhaps.
Drop #3 — Mind tuning
Taking back control of one’s mind is something I’ve written about, spoken about and actioned upon quite a lot. It’s similar to how a guitarist tunes tunes the guitar before starting to play it. The mind needs to be tuned too. Every now and then I’ll do random challenges or define a personal rule that needs to be followed. These will, most likely, be linked to something that my mind needs to learn.
For instance, I set a timer this morning for 12 hours, and have decided not to open any social media app on my phone till the timer ends. Just helps me to stay focused on the work I’m doing and not whip out my phone subconsciously every time I’m alone, with nothing else to do.
Just be, don’t do.
Interestingly, I did pull out my phone and click on Instagram a couple of times today but as soon as I realised I’d clicked on it, I’d close it and put my phone back inside because I’d see the timer or remember it before I started scrolling. Near misses but the tuning is on.
Drop #4 — the power of routine, or process, of discipline
I cannot emphasise more on how important routine is for me. I have post-its, notes on my fridge and a 100 or more different ‘daily routines’ I’ve written on so many diaries, notepads and whiteboards. It is not funny. But this is something that means a lot to me.
Athletes go through their ‘routines’. High performing sports teams do that too. They’ll have a fixed methodology of training, or warming up. It’s well defined, never random. When we take away randomness from activities that require you to do one thing again and again, like a workout or training regime, we’re more likely to do the activity. There is no ambiguity or anxiety. We’ll know exactly what we need to do.
On days when I’m really slow, I’ll most certainly choose a guided workout because I don’t have to think then. Just follow the trainer, get the workout done, move on.
I’ve also created a morning routine because I didn’t have one till very recently. I would even forget to brush my teeth on many occassions (believe it or not) and would get to it by afteroon or right after breakfast when I’d feel that there’s something not quite right with my teeth.
Anyway, now I have a clear process of what to do once I wake up (and it also includes a high-five to myself for being the rockstar I am) and hence I am even happier in the mornings.
I’m quite excited to create more ripples now. When I just don’t feel like studying or writing or reading, I’ll try to study one module or even a minute or write one sentence or read a couple of lines. Don’t feel like a 5K run this morning? Okay, let’s do a 2min run. Don’t feel like sitting and meditating? Okay, let’s just sit still for 30 seconds. Let’s see if the ripples can help keep the river flowing in the right direction. I think they will.
Till Diwali, keep lighting it up!