Second Week

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Second week and the momentum is still there :D

January is all about strengthening willpower. The linchpin to all of this is going to bed earlier. And that seems to be true. I am consistently going to bed early and waking early. Consistently meditating when I wake up. I am meeting the non-negotiables of the day. The efforts to build up willpower seem to be working. Here’s what I have noticed so far:

I am doing a lot less overall. And the things I am doing, feel more weighty. More focused. I am finding it every so slightly easier to put space between “downtime” and the urge to fill that time with mindless scrolling. Which means, ultimately, less scrolling.

It is exactly like when I quit smoking. The more you resist the urge the easier to becomes.

In addition to this, I have been developing a plan to help me meet some of my loftier ambitions and goals. It’s been a few weeks of challenging concentration and focus and much reflection but I got there. I have printed out the plan on a single page, and most importantly, printed out several copies of “The Why” to place strategically around my house. Reminders for why I am doing all of this.

Something I have learned about working with ADHD (and maybe this is common outside of that too I dunno) is that it can be really easy to forget why you are doing something or why the thing you are working on matters in the grand scheme of things. This sense of not being able to recall the larger picture and how the thing you are doing fits into that can lead to abandoning the larger work. This is likely (partly) why I have so many large ambitions that have failed in the past.

I have never tried to apply any sort of discipline or rules to my life outside of “red task” things like “you have to work to pay bills” which gets me to the office each day. I just, never had those things instilled in me. This is me re-parenting myself.