Life, I find, often gets in the way of our aspirations.

A diesel leak forces you to spend two hours on your hands and knees, elbow deep in the bilge huffing fumes and sweating through the good t-shirt you put on in the morning expecting not to get too sweaty or grimy. A routine dentist appointment requires a 4 hour public van drive, an overnight stay in a cheap hotel, and a 5 hour public van drive home, all for a couple of uncomfortable hours in the chair. Noticing a few tiny crawlies on the countertop one night turns into a whole day of deep cleaning the galley, vacuum in one hand, spray can of unwanted, noxious chemicals in the other.

Add to that the planned work for the week- Steve cutting open the floor just outside the head to deal with an old soft spot only to discover that the floor here was in just as bad shape as the rot we uncovered in the bathroom the week before.  

Me deciding it was a good week to play a master level game of 3D Tetris, A.K.A repacking the storage space under the vee berth, finally putting our luggage and my sewing machines back where they belong.

And please don’t forget the daily chores of keeping us fed and watered (by this I mean running our water maker once a week), keeping an eye on our power generation and consumption, laundry, groceries, and the ever present attention to weather.

That’s all to say that there hasn’t been a lot of time, or brain space for that matter, for me to sit at my desk and write this week. In truth, as of last night I wasn’t even sure if I would bother to try.

But then I was woken up this morning at 0500 by the furry alarm clock. Kitten, standing by the bunk making her cutesy but persistent soft mewling get up and feed me now please sounds.

And after saving her from starvation (it had been 12 hours since she’d eaten)I decided not to try to go back to sleep but to start my day. I put on my headphones, some Schubert, and a 1 minute interval timer did 8 minutes of yoga on the sofa in the near darkness. Quietly, slowly, mindfully starting my day. While I waited for the kettle to boil to make coffee I decided to do 8 more minutes. I took my coffee out to the cockpit and opened my notebook. It had been a busy week. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t at least show up and try.   

At the beginning of the year I set myself a goal to write and post here once a week.

I wasn’t interested in drumming up traffic or writing something that would appease SEO. I didn’t want to just show up every week and post a “blog” (a cringe-worthy description of my writing for me at the best of times). I wanted to write with intention. My intention was to be consistent.

Not perfect, not even good. Consistent.

I realized last year that the only way to get results is to be consistent. Doing that thing you are working towards so regularly that the activity becomes habit. If you turn the voice off in your head that says “why bother?, who cares?, what’s the point?” enough times it will eventually stop. Or at least quieten down for long enough that you get to do the thing and enjoy doing it. And the only way to turn off the noise is to sit down at my desk, or put on your sneakers, or pick up the guitar that’s gathering dust in the corner, or just put down the time sucking, mind numbing “smart phone” and show up for yourself.

The first step, the showing up for yourself, is always the hardest. After that momentum will take over. Because the more you show up, the better you’ll become at that thing, and the easier it will feel, and then the more you’ll want to do it.

This isn’t a ground breaking discovery.

There is no shortage of books, podcast, and “experts” out there that have been peddling this theory for decades. Heck, Newton figured it out way back when he coined the Laws of Motion (and I paraphrase) 1. An object will stay at rest until acted upon by a force. And 2. The change of motion is proportional to the forces exerted upon it.

If you want to achieve a goal, then, bad news, you have to be the one to move yourself towards it. Consistently. Every time life tries to get in the way you have to get up and try again.

It might not be ground breaking, but perhaps it has been life changing for me.

After years of struggling with my writing habit, or perhaps lack there of, I realized that the solution is simple. Sit down and do it. Everyday if I can. And if I miss a day then sit down the next day, no guilt, no negativity. Just bring to my desk my intention to be consistent. My desire to show up, not for anyone else, but for myself.  

Week nine of showing up regardless of what life throws in the way.

Love,
H&S