Some food for thought: How can you apply what you're learning or reading to your everyday activities? Better yet, how can you apply this to help or teach someone else?
Perhaps whatever it is that you do, that you particularly don't like but know it has to get done, will feel less daunting and more rewarding if you keep these questions in mind.
I'm pretty sure I heard this phrase in one of Tim Ferriss's podcasts; or at least a version of 'the little things add up to the big things.' I paused the audio, wrote the phrase on a sticky note and placed it on a mirror in my closet that I see every day.
This has been posted for at least three months.
There were days that I blindly didn't pay attention to the note, but I'd find myself repeating the phrase in my mind the moment I would reach for my phone instead of folding clothes. Or moments when the last thing I'd want to do is twist my hair (a process that takes at least 30 minutes), read a book or write in my journal.
"How you do anything is how you do everything."
I'd pat myself on the back while shouting 'yassss Sab!' when I'd untwist my hair, look in the mirror and thank the natural hair based God for blessing me with a good hair day. Talk about a confidence booster.
The subtle habits of taking care of myself mixed with the practice of pratyahara - a conscious effort to draw away from outside stimuli and the external world (see: social media) - has helped me not only be more presentable when I'm out and about, but laser focused on making steady progress in all facets of my life.
The bonus is that I'm able to congratulate myself and celebrate the small victories that I've achieved along the way.
Busy exploring my surroundings. Feeling like a tourist in the place I grew up, experiencing everything with a new lens. Busy surrounding myself with explorers. Healers, entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, teachers, activists, those who lift me up.
Busy practicing the art of self-care. Telling people no, digging in my mat, reflecting, meditating and listening.
Busy facing the trauma of what I'm exposed to. Gripping the wheel each time I pass a cop, tensing up, forgetting to breathe, thinking of who I'd call if I were to get pulled over.
Busy. Understanding, learning, researching and teaching.
Occupying my time to reflect and engage; to live fully present, in the midst of busyness.
"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it." - Seneca, The Shortness of Life
Writing something down is easier to get away with not doing said thing, because no one knows about it. However with me, there's something finite about seeing ink on paper. Especially if it's defined as a goal.
August 1st.
It's been 31 days since I last published, and I set my intention to post something tonight, with 8 minutes left in the day.
Thinking of every excuse means you're hiding.
Post.
