Begin again

Begin again.

I haven’t found a way to establish a habit of writing for thirty minutes per day. I fell off the proverbial horse three-days in. That’s OK. Perhaps it is due to my daily meditation practice, but I feel that the concept of begin again has been incredibly useful in my life.

What is the point of writing thirty-minutes per day? To write more. To establish a habit of writing. To gain more and more experience with writing. If I fail to write, then the correct response is to begin again. That, or give up. I would rather not give up.

What have I learned from failing?

To succeed, I’ll need to set up a system, or structure, to create a habit.

Do I want to write in the morning, afternoon, or evening? Currently, my daily habit does not permit writing in the morning. If I am focusing on writing, then I should focus on writing in the afternoon or evening.

After work, I tend to go towards cleaning dishes and preparing for the rest of the evening.

Note: the perfect time to write for thirty-minutes is not immediately after you put a leftover Tomahawk steak in the over and forget to set a timer. That is a bad idea.

I don’t have an answer. I’ll have to play around with the various factors and see which time of day works best to ensure a solid habit.

I’m interested in finishing the podcast Sam Harris has with the author of *Atomic Habits* (I believe his name is James Clear, though I don’t have access to my phone right now). I haven’t given much thought to the habits, or lack of habits, in my life. Due to COVID-19, what I am finding is that my wellbeing is directly tied to the systems or habits I have in place.

Interruption of thought: To my surprise and delight, the steak isn’t ruined! I thought I had botched it and would eat, or throw away, a well done Tomahawk steak (I prefer my steaks medium-rare). Only the outside of the steak was well done. Hallelujah!

Example of what I mean by systems and habits — I notice that I am on edge when dishes start to pile up. It gnaws at my brain until I do something about it. If events in life pull me away from doing dishes that day, the next day, I’m frustrated and irritated, which fascinates me because, according to my Big Five Personality, I am not high in orderliness. At all.

Unless your diet, or preference, doesn’t permit you to eat a Tomahawk steak, I strongly recommend adding one to your bucket list of foods to eat in your lifetime. Drool!

Part of me wonders if this notion of “thirty-minutes every day” is too much. Is it too rigid of a goal/habit? What if I said fifteen-minutes per day? It is less time writing, obviously, and so if there is any type of correlation between X-minutes writing and the ability to write well, then I’m doing myself a disfavor. However, if the goal is too high, subsequently, it will never be achieved, and the return of an investment will equal approximately zero.

Tough call.

At any rate, I failed to set a timer today, and I cannot remember when I started writing/how many times I was interrupted to know if I’ve written a full thirty-minutes. This will have to suffice because steak and glass of red wine are calling my name.