It Was Not My Phone. Thirty Years of Discipline, Broken by Overwork

Here is what I actually did about this.

This morning, before I even had time to think through it, I did not wait for a fresh start on Monday.

I got up and I did some Tai Chi again.

Some exercises I hadn't done for a few days.

Nothing dramatic, no grand comeback, just the actual movements on the actual day, while everything that caused the break was still sitting there, unchanged.

This is the part I want you to hear, whoever you are right now watching this.

You do not need the stress to disappear before you're allowed to start again.

You do not need a lighter week, a clear inbox or a better mood.

30 years of training taught me that discipline was never about waiting for the right conditions.

It was about doing the thing while the conditions were still wrong.

I'm not gonna tell you it was easy for me to get back on it because it was not.

I'm not immune to overwork and scrolling just like everybody else.

I think it actually might even make it harder to get back into it.

What I am immune to mostly is the idea that I need permission to start again.

You do not need permission either.

Pick the smallest version of the thing you dropped.

For me, today, that was Tai Chi and one set of exercises, not a full two hours or an hour training.

So do the smallest version today, not Monday, not when things settle down because things rarely settle down on their own timeline.

And then that makes it even harder as you try and pick it up again.

So 30 years in, I'm still relearning the lesson.

So if you're somewhere near the start of yours, you're not behind me.

You're just doing the exact same work that I did this morning, just from wherever you happen to be standing.