Happy New Year. I hope your holiday season was epic. Or, as a bumper sticker I saw yesterday told me: "Have the holidays you voted for." Catchy. Thought provoking.
My personal algorithm must lean toward challenge. As I doom scroll, I constantly receive notifications from Steve Magness and Alex Hutchinson, among others, telling me how to set goals and be a better me. I'm at the point in life where I'm just accepting who I am without judgment, but I have to agree these guys are on to something. Once you stop trying to be just a little bit better every day there's a tendency to settle for normal. Which is ok. Normal is just fine.
But in my business, normal doesn't get you to the Promised Land, so I read Steve Magness, try to develop a mobility habit, am mindful about drinking more water, and patiently await the publication of The Long Run. We're 101 days out from pub day. Steve himself calls it
A powerful exploration of how we learned to embrace endurance, not just as a physical test, but as a defining part of our modern identity. A must read!
Thank you, Steve Magness. Awesome. Pre-order your copy now!
Back to habits. I did not take the time to research its origins, given as I am to just riffing when I write these missives, but a study has discovered that practicing a new habit ten minutes a day helps it take hold. I agree. My guitar practice began with that ten minutes policy two years ago. Same with my Duolingo French. The trick is to be happy with ten minutes. Making up for lost days by going for an hour is frustrating and leads to failure.
I try to keep this space free of how-to. I'm a working writer not a role model. I'm anxious when I don't need to be. God and I are in a good place but I'm confused about the current state of organized religion. You really don't want to look in my grocery cart.
Yet I must say this: the ten-minute theory works. I look forward to playing the guitar each day. The French thing is a bit trickier but I like how that's coming along, too. I'd been trying to learn both for years — now I am. Never going to make a living at it. The French will never understand a word I say, but it feels good to be doing it — not lamenting that I wish I could do it someday.
We've all got some itch that needs to be scratched. Ten minutes is over before you know it. Sometimes it goes by too fast and I just keep right on practicing. So give it a try — and look for an excerpt from The Long Run in this space very soon.
Party on.