You know those movies where the main character is stuck in a time loop, the woman checks out the noise, and the guy walks into the dark hallway?
Those stories suck.
In truth, some of my favorite flicks have several of these elements in them, but I’m thinking about the number of times we see these same events played out on screen. We practically come out of our seats, wondering how foolish the characters could be to fall for something so simple, yet they continue onward.
There’s really no reason you can’t start working toward that thing you want to accomplish right now, is there?
— Dan Benjamin (@danbenjamin) September 29, 2014
This is such a simple question. Perhaps so simple that it snuck under my radar and it hit me between the eyes tonight. Today was a long day; up at 6am, at the office by 8am, running errands at 6pm, freelancing by 8pm, writing at midnight. I’m doing a fair amount of freelancing right now which makes for some long days. I’m not one to come home and fire up Netflix, but to be frank, right now I’m ready for “day one” of any good habit to be, well, tomorrow.
But…isn’t that part of getting anything done? You know, doing the work?
I am forever quoting my younger brother, who said:
“Whenever you want to get something done, remember: Today is day one.”
Again, such a simple concept, kind of like the lessons we wish those fictional characters would learn. We know how works gets done, how habits are formed, and even how success is measured. It’s by doing the work.
Blogging is like working out. Every one talks about wanting to do it more, but it's the people actually doing it we admire.
— Jesse Gardner (@plasticmind) September 29, 2014
Again, this seems like such a simple thing…because there’s no mystery to it. If I want to write more, it takes making the clackity noise every day. If my goal is to spend more time on freelance/personal projects, that takes a daily effort to accomplish. Why do I scoff at the foolishness of a fictional character when I walk down the same dark hallway after them?
Today is day one, again. Now we’ll see what happens tomorrow.