“Does Casey Neistat snooze? Nah.”
“What about Seth Godin? I don’t think so.”
“Tim Ferriss? No way.”
“Terry Crews? Please.”
These were the words in my thought bubble as I was desperately pulling myself off the bed this morning.
Yesterday I promised myself that today would be the day I quit snoozing my alarms. I even tweeted it just so it’s in writing and so it’s public, that way I’m accountable not only to myself but also to the (Twitter) universe. And I kept that promise as I dragged myself out of bed towards the light switch. The bright LED bulbs blinded me as I sat back down on my bed. The temptation to lie back down was excruciating.
But at that point, I told myself, it was simply a matter of not going back to sleep. At that moment, it was just about choosing to stay awake, which I already was. It’s a matter of realizing that once you’re up, all you have to do is nothing. “You’re already up. You’re good.”
Of course this is all way easier said than done, especially since staying awake while you’re already up is never as simple as “doing nothing.” It’s never as easy as “not going back to sleep” when going back to sleep is clearly the easier option. But the idea isn’t to be logical or correct. Sometimes, the goal is to flip that mental switch, to psych the mind into thinking the way we want it to. It’s about doing what it takes to start somewhere.
And this whole exercise of comparing myself to people I look up to, of announcing that today is the day I start a new habit, of training myself to think that the more difficult choice is the easier choice, is about doing that – doing what it takes to start somewhere.