Rebuilding, again

A while ago, after lots of work, I'd developed a great set of daily habits.

I started my routine at night. I'd lay out what I needed for the next morning. I had a checklist.

I'd get to bed early. Or early-ish. Early enough that I'd wake up at 5:30 AM.

I'd often wake up without prompting. Sometimes I'd need my phone to vibrate me awake. But I got up pretty reliably around then.

I'd go through my morning routine. I had a checklist for that, too. A couple, actually.

Cold shower. Pee. Weigh myself, etc.

Meditation, affirmations, exercise, writing.

I was in a groove.

Then things unraveled. It happened in stages, not necessarily in this precise order, but probably close.

I stopped using my checklists. I stopped meditating. I stopped writing regularly. The cold showers became onerous. I stopped exercising. I was still productive. My life was satisfying. But it wasn't the same.

I kept trying to get back in the groove.

It took a couple of tries to get started, but I feel like I'm rebuilding.

Hey, Future Me, if this happens to you again, here's how to rebuild.

1. Start with your Daily Pages.
2. Use it to build your other habits.

I've been doing my Daily Pages (thank you, Julia Cameron, for the idea and Buster Benson for 750 words.com)

I've been publishing a post a day. (Thank you StackEdit, Grammarly and the Internet)

Now I'm doing 4x up the driveway (thank you, Mira)

I'm working on mindfully choosing my MITT (thank you, Daniel)

And thanks to all the other people who have helped get me back in my groove and who have supported me while I was wandering,

Shout-outs, in alphabetical order to Alyssa and Bobbi and Dana, and John and Justin and Mitchell, and Konrad.

Every one of these people--and more-- has helped.

That's today's first post.

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