Today I had a long list of everything I reasonably could want from the day.  It was a simple list, but full of things I did not think was likely to happen.  Then I got everything I thought I was wanting from the day.  I then proceeded to toss away the things I had been given.

What did I want from the day?  I wanted peace and quiet.  I wanted the mental space to work on projects.  I wanted to finish this newsletter for the week and publish it.  I got all this.  Everyone had left the house for the whole day and given me a perfect work environment to tackle the things I wanted to tackle.  I then proceeded to waste all this quality time I had been gifted.

The hours of the day melted away and I didn’t even really try to get anything done.  I had spent an hour this morning thinking about what I wanted to do to.  I had gone for a long walk and thought of all the things I would be doing if I just had peace and quiet.  Then I was given that peace and quiet.  What did throwing away all this time today even mean?

I have been telling myself for a while now that lack of peace and quiet is a huge hurdle to my workflow.  Working from home is distracting, and I thought it was a reason I wasn’t doing enough work.  Today I got that good work environment I dreamed of and nothing happened.  Perhaps the obstacles to my progress are not entirely what I perceive them to be.   They may be something else entirely.

I can’t say that I will find any profound lessons from wasting my day today.  This newsletter is still getting published.  Today has proven I’m not as smart as I think I am.

I’m not smart enough to know all the roadblocks to my productivity.  I thought I had but one roadblock, and that was proven untrue.  

I am not smart enough to keep this thing from happening again and again.  I have wasted time in similar circumstances so many times. 

I am not smart enough to capitalize when I’m given everything I want and say that I need.  How many other times have I been given all the tools and resources and done nothing with them in my life?

I am not smart enough to come to any conclusions for this newsletter.

If only I had time to come to some conclusions then I would have some good conclusions.  If only I had a few hours of peace and quiet I could get something good written down to conclude this newsletter.  We now know that is a lie.  When I say “If only…” I am just tricking myself.  When I say “If only…” there are likely a lot of problems in the way.  Thinking there is one when there are many, that is a mind trap for all us to avoid.

There is the conclusion, that only came about because I had no conclusions.

My Favorite Things

Every week I spend a lot of time reading and looking for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome.  Here are some of the best things I have found this week.

Strength and Conditioning

A good article on things going differently than planned.  https://www.elitefts.com/education/it-wasnt-what-i-thought-it-would-be/

A good article on using variation in training.  https://www.strongfirst.com/introducing-the-strongfirst-wod/

Mental Fitness

I found this a good article to remind me about mental programming and choosing how I view things.  https://joshstrength.com/2021/01/10-ways-to-program-your-mind-for-success-genetic-engineering/