I just made, although have not yet published, a couple of videos for my channel, on patience and the slow, step by step building of habits.
I have three problems when it comes to transforming my life. Complacency, impatience and depression.
Complacency
I have a good life. It starts with a beautiful, wonderful wife, continues through three amazing sons, and moves on to a good job, doing something I enjoy. Change is hard, and it’s harder when you have it pretty good.
Impatience
I also lack patience. I want what I want, and I want it now. I want to be bigger and stronger, but I hate resistance training. Bigger and stronger takes time, and putting in the time at something you hate is hard.
Depression
This is, of course, the biggie. Any time I have tried to transform my life by making the big leap, I’ve started out strong, got myself into a bit of a groove, and BAM, the depression would hit. I would lose all forward momentum, and be sent right back to the beginning.
Worse, I’d be sent back to before the beginning, because of the self recriminations from having failed, and every failure makes the self recrimination worse.
A New Way
So I’ve embarked on a new way. I no longer seek to make major changes, but rather very small ones; changes so small they are hard to notice in the grand scheme.
For example, I want more productive time in the day, so I ultimately want to be getting up before 6am, but instead of setting my alarm for 5:30, I get up 5 minutes earlier, every day, for a week. Then do another five minutes the next week, etc.
This incremental approach drives my impatience crazy, but unlike the one big change, it actually works.
