*Note: Copied over from Morning Pages journal vol. 14, personal journal vol. 11, dated 9.30.2024*

You have the blocks, you have the ideals, you have the goal. What’s the last part of this extended think-through you’ve been on?

Setting it up.

Find time, maybe Sunday evening, and just look at all the stuff you got going on for the week. Events, appointments, when April will be here vs. when she won’t, marked travel time, and don’t forget to allow blank space in there. Seriously. Just because there’s a three hour stretch of open availability doesn’t mean you have to fill that space with everything. Sometimes being bored is good. Let the space remain empty. Scheduling shouldn’t take very long. Try to keep it under 30 minutes but who am I kidding try to keep it under an hour. Have a note on your computer desktop with all the titles and headers of the tasks so you can copy and paste the usuals depending on what kind of day it is.

Then follow it.

Here’s the trick, and it’s the trick you reteach yourself over and over, again and again: just showing up is most of the fight.

You have a scheduled block for playing with the boys and you’re beat? Play a lazy game with them that doesn’t involve a lot of movement. Have a block to do household chores? Just unload the dishwasher because heaven forbid the dishes don’t get done in a house where you have to do at least two loads a day.

Just show up, man.

That’s the impetus of this journaling practice. Morning Pages was built on just showing up.

Just show up.

Let yourself sort the rest out.

Thanks for reading,

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