Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.
Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Another one in the books, Dwellers.
The official end of my 75 Hard run was this past Thursday. All told, I drank a ludicrous amount of water, read a couple of non-fiction books specifically about the craft of writing, lost 15lbs, and shaped up overall. So, with that all coming to an end, how do I feel? Would I recommend others take on the challenge? Did I think it was worth it?
I’ll give my all-time favorite answer. Depends.
Obviously, at this point it’s pretty clear that I’m a proponent of doing what you can to help increase your self-discipline. I think that, if you intend to do something that has an impact and/or make some of your aspirations come to pass, there’s no substitute for discipline. It’s why I’ve done so much of what I’m currently doing. This site, the morning exercises, the Beeminders. 75 Hard. Exodus 90. I’ve got a string of programs and functions I’ve done specifically to help myself become more disciplined in places where I struggle. Honestly, I love finding and trying programs like this out.
That said, being something of a completionist – have I mentioned that I’m going to platinum every PS5 game I get? – once I start one, no matter how annoying or unnecessary I find things, I’m going to do what I can to stick it through. This brings me to the 75 Hard Autopsy.
The good? I’ve never been great about hitting recommended water targets. It’s been a weak point for my health along with poor dietary choices. This program SHOULD address both. I say should because you do get to choose your own diet. All that’s asked is that you stick to it. So, in theory, you could pick something that’s middling and it won’t be much help. In the end, as long as you’re sticking to it, that’s a plus. Discipline, after all. Tracking pictures was also a good call. It’s a lot easier to see the difference in things when you actually look, after all. I’ve never been much for reading non-fiction, so I guess it was good to break that, though, if I’m being honest, I doubt I’ll make it a habit. Ditto for the exercise. I had already been diligent in having one good workout five or six days a week. Tacking on the seventh day was easy enough. But…
I’m a pretty busy guy. I’ve got a family, kids in sports, the occasional school activity, tons of kid birthday parties and family events, and I’m trying to write novels / short stories while working a tech job. I cannot adequately express how much my nightly outdoor exercise sapped the post-work productivity from everything else. Two hours a day (including shower time and such) dedicated to working out is just not the way. Not for me. I am so very excited to have that time back to devote to one of the myriad of other things on my plate. Not that I’ll never do it again. I’m down to go for the occasional bike ride or run around the neighborhood, but it’ll be on my terms. Glorious freedom.
Now, again, your mileage may vary. My friend who did this with me had great results. He wasn’t on much of an exercise habit and wasn’t really reading much at all prior to this and he’s had some wonderful things to say about the added habits. Really happy to hear it, glad it worked out as well as it did for him.
So, take either of those as a testimonial. Would I say it was worth it? Yeah, I would. Would I do it again? Probably not.
I’ve already poured some of this extra time into writing so that I can finish up my first short story in time for submission and it’s coming right along. You love to see it. This is a very different story than I’ve done in the past and it’s… it’s been a weird one to write. Looking forward to seeing what a few polish passes will do for it. More to come there. And, apologies, it’s the reason I’m cutting this a little short. Have to take advantage of what writing time I have!
In the meantime, go out and create my friends. Hone yourselves. Git Gud, as us nerds say.
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At last, a Minecraft build. I feel like we’ve got a few bigger blocks (ba-dum-tss) of Lego “genres” in our collection, and Minecraft is definitely a big one. These, the City builds, and Ninjago feel like they’re probably the big ones. In any case, I’m not committing to doing all these back to back, but this was kind of a refreshing one. A little larger than some of the last ones but nothing too frustrating to find. Bravo, all around.
Granted, this one shows I’ll need to get a little better at my photography…
Themeattics 