…. The last blog I wrote was on Feb 26th. I really don’t know why I haven’t written since then. As always I have a backlog of topics that I want to write about, but just never got around to it. Am sure everyone falls off their favourite wagon every now and then. I certainly do !
Last week during a catchup with some friends, one of them remarked that “I never exercise consistently”. It’s true.. we are great starters but very poor re-starters. What stops us from re-starting ? Is it the old fear of what will others say? or is it just inertia ? Also imagine if as babies, we didn’t re-start. A baby keeps starting, failing, restarting, succeeding, failing again, restarting. That’s how we learn to walk, cycle, run.
Somewhere between our teenage years and adult life we forget this ability to restart anything. We feel, either we succeed the first time or drop the activity altogether. It’s not about grit or perseverance, I guess mostly it’s because we don’t have the discipline to stick to something consistently. For people like me who dislike the word “discipline”, it’s worse.
I start brushing my teeth from a different side every day, just because I abhor routine. But I am also the person who has walked 10000 steps consistently for 2.5 years and 8000+ steps consistently for the past six months ! So I do have the discipline to stick to any activity or project but I keep falling off the wagon.
How to Restart Anything
The following are my tips. Do try them and let me know if they work for you. If something else works, please do share so other readers may benefit.
- Figure out the “Why” – you need to rethink about why you wanted to do this activity or project in the first place. You may just realise that it’s something that caught your fancy for a few days/months and it’s no longer important to you. Its the same with relationships that just wither away after a short burst of strong connection. Let them be. Blogging for me is therapeutic, so I ain’t giving up on it.
- Do it as the first thing at the start of your day – this is especially true for restarting. I would usually write in the morning, just after having a cup of tea or coffee or I would write just before going to bed. If I write early in the morning, am usually able to stick to the schedule… last activity of the day? Watching “Blacklist” is more interesting :).
- A specific spot in the house/office – Having a specific spot to “do” the activity helps tremendously because we are creatures of habit, whether we like it or not. Being in a particular place triggers similar thoughts. I noticed this for the first time during my morning walks. At certain locations inside our condominium complex, I would get similar ideas for blogging or presentations or talks. Get that desk and stick it to one place. The whole idea of working from any desk at the office is somehow not very conducive for creative work.
- Restart Small – You can try denting the universe like Steve Jobs, but he too started with one product at first :). Get consistent with one project and train yourself to restart, refocus. Get the small victories in before attempting the big restart.
Well, I have restarted my blogging. What are you going to restart today ? Don’t wait, just get into it. You can figure it all out as you go along.
B & K,
OK. I re-start lots of things, but many things require backing up and starting over, like writing and editing. When I think of the things I have had to un-do, to repair what has rusted in place, warped, rotted, deteriorated, or otherwise become obsolete, I find many hours are spent, not starting, but undoing and disposing of what no longer works. This morning I spent a half-hour getting through packaging on baking soda for brushing my teeth. In the US packaging constitutes a large part of any purchase, but landfills and public services have been public-private-partnered out (to use a term I invented just now), and packaging constitutes most of my disposables.
I like your method of changing how you brush your teeth. I vary brushing with left and right hands, but I brush at least every day. That, plus general cleaning, must be re-started every day. Walking? Haha. Try running through mud puddles in Goodwill shoes that collect mud in the soles, which then track mud on floors and carpets, and become unglued at the toes, and cause me to trip on stairs, curbs, and broken pavement.
But I still get up every morning, earlier by the clock, after this past weekend, because of Daylight Savings Time, to restart restarting everything else.
You write so well Katharine ! I can almost picture you “restarting” things and especially disposal of packaging. Now that you speak about that, disposal of packaging is becoming a huge issue in India as well. With the online stores delivering even a small pen, or scissors wrapped in a plastic bag, then placed inside a cardboard box with lots of tapes stuck all around.. its like a treasure hunt getting to the item.
The one good thing about some of our homegrown delivery apps like Swiggy or Zomato is they bring the items in a reusable bag without additional packaging. There is an option to choose getting the grocery/stationery items without a bag and food is delivered without the disposable cutlery. But still there is so much of plastic that’s generated :(. Even when we go to the grocery stores, every item is packed in a plastic bag.
Hopefully things turn around and we go back to the olden days where everyone would carry cloth bags and get dry groceries, veggies etc wrapped in newspaper without any plastic pouches.
I don’t throw away the Amazon cardboard boxes – I use them to store stuff that I want to give away, like old clothes etc. and sometimes the items are safely packed with a lot of brown paper and I roll them up to use as shelf liners. Just trying to minimise our carbon footprint with small steps like these. 🙂
And that’s why I enjoy exchanging ideas with you. We have shared so much over the years, so I already knew some of your thoughts on packaging. I am also fortunate that you speak and write so well in English, because I am severely limited by having only one language. AI is like another language I must learn and use. How much do I miss by these limitations?
Thanks for your response. I’m glad you have found uses for the extras that come with your purchases. I’ve been repurposing what I can, but even my tools, like needles and thread, have rusted and become rotten with the humid and salty air.