Today was one of those days.
I woke up a little bit earlier than normal and I felt like I’d wrestled a bear the day before. My body ached, I was tired and if I hadn’t had a bunch of things to do in the office today, I would have happily just stayed in bed.
In fact, I said to my wife that I was disappointed today wasn’t Saturday so I could just lay around and do nothing.
I like my job, it’s actually pretty good fun. I get to work on interesting things and do business with companies that have a lot going on.
The upside of that is, even when I’m feeling less than 100%, I don’t mind waking up and cracking on with the day.
Some Days The Tank Is Empty
Except today. Today I totally wasn’t feeling it.
The morning was alright, just a bit sore and genuinely uninterested but by lunchtime I was feeling downright poor. I decided to go for a walk, get some fresh air and grab a bottle of water. On my walk I suddenly found myself standing at a juice bar ordering a green apple and orange freshly pressed juice.
It was a bit like an out of body experience. I could see myself saying the words, giving them the money, accepting the juice and drinking it. It was absolutely me doing this, but even I couldn’t believe it was happening.
Turning To Fruit Juice… Uh Oh!
I have nothing against fruit juices or any of that stuff, in fact I quite like them, but me hitting up “Fruition” and ordering a juice is kind of out of character. Even worse, this possessed version of myself was eyeing off Strawberry Yogurt before ordering the juice. I loathe yogurt… Not even a small dislike, absolutely hate it.
While I was totally demolishing this green apple and orange fruit juice (it was very nice by the way) I realized something wasn’t quite right with me. That hunch was confirmed when I decided to forgo lunch and have a passion fruit muffin instead.
I literally went to the cafe where I order lunch normally and instead of a sandwich or whatever, I came away with a passion fruit muffin and a slight sense of confusion. I liked the muffin as well despite my overall indifference to passion fruit.
As the day wore on I just kind of zombie walked through it. I was there in body, but in spirit and in mind, I was somewhere else. Apparently the zombie version of myself likes pressed fruit juice and passion fruit muffins.
When I got home, we had to do some grocery shopping then I plunked my backside on the couch and watched some hockey. And there I sat until 10pm.
Making The Right Choice
In the back of my mind, I knew I had to get an email out but I just wasn’t feeling it at all. It was in that singular moment where I had a choice, go downstairs to bed and skip writing an email today or come upstairs, push through and do what I said I was going to do.
And here I sit at 10:20pm writing this email.
Why? Why not just skip a day? Well, the answer is simple, I committed to doing this and part of doing something that’s worth doing is finding the inner strength to do it even when you don’t feel like it.
Create Good Habits
It’s also about forming good habits. Writing these emails every day, getting my ideas down and sharing these things is something I want to do. It’s not always easy, but if I can train myself to do it, then it becomes a habit and it becomes easier to do.
This evening showed that after only a month of writing these emails every day that the habit is forming. Despite just about everything telling me to skip it, I needed to come do it. Not all habits are bad, you can create good habits for yourself.
In fact, in the March issue of the Casual Marketer Monthly Newsletter there’s a section where I talk about forming good habits. The things I share in the newsletter with my subscribers isn’t theory, it’s how I do things. This whole issue of the newsletter is about persistence – today’s email is a clear demonstration of persistence. I talk about committing to something and here I am writing this email because I said I would.
If you read this issue, you’ll see what I’m talking about, but you’ll have to hurry because in less than 48 hours, I’m going to be mailing this issue out, so I encourage you to click the button below and subscribe today!