Back to the grind
By in
A couple of weeks ago, COVID swept through our small family of 3. First, my wife got sick, then our daughter got sick, and then I eventually ended up in bed for a few days. As I was driving to work this morning, I had a few thoughts I felt I needed to document:
- Being sick is a great forced vacation – I am usually “go go go” and always trying my best to stick to my good habits, engage with my family, and work hard on building the company. What I realized a few days into binge watching Netflix and Youtube is being really sick is an excellent excuse to let go of almost everything and just rest. It was a freeing feeling to cancel all my meetings and not be thinking about my next obligation
- A little bit of dopamine goes a long way – 3 days into being sick, I literally accomplished almost nothing. I think I even skipped a day of brushing my teeth…I listened to an Andrew Huberman podcast a few months ago and one of the things he talked about was getting depressed people to feel better. I am in no way, shape, or form depressed at the moment but I did find a good tool in that podcast I used when I was sick. When the worst of the illness was over, I knew I needed to get back on my feet. I woke up, drank a Pepsi Zero (Has some caffeine, hadn’t had caffeine in days) to give me a little energy boost, and decided I was going to try to accomplish something. I decided I was going to make a casserole in the slow cooker (I know, a ton of work :)). What I can say is once I completed that task, I had a small release of dopamine. I continued throughout the day to clean the kitchen, take a shower, brush my teeth, shave, etc. All of these things were making me feel good because I was experiencing dopamine release. 4 days later, I am back to my functional self (Minus a noticeable drop in physical fitness, but that’ll come)
- Enjoy the Grind – Sometimes I feel like my days are repetitive and I am not making progress. I listened to a podcast while I was sick. It was Diary of A CEO and the guest was the CEO of AIRBNB. Link below if you are interested. My takeaway was that everyone wakes up and has to grind at something (unless you are retired and don’t want to anymore). He said people overestimate what they can do in a day or even a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade. Identifying why I do what I do and where I want to go is really important in making sure I enjoy the grind of daily life. Life isn’t easy for anyone. If it appears like someone’s life is easy, it is an illusion. I feel like it’s important to find satisfaction in the difficulties of life by defining what life means to me. On my way to work this morning, I was looking forward to the grind. When the grind temporarily halted due to COVID, I enjoyed the break but found myself missing my grind after just a few days
In summary, I think taking more scheduled time off to get away from my routines would be a good thing. It allows me to reflect on what I am doing, and why I am doing it. When I am feeling like I am in a rut and not having the drive to accomplish bigger tasks, I will go back to the basics like making my bed, brushing and flossing my teeth, or reading just a page every day. I have a choice to enjoy or dislike the grind. I should be choosing the former more often!