It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written a post.
Why?
Well, I’ve been moving.
As a result, I’ve spent pretty much every second that I wasn’t working or training putting things into boxes at my old apartment and moving them into my new house.
And just because everybody’s been asking me… no, I did not buy a house.
I’m still renting – and might continue to do so for the rest of my life.
Real estate prices are crazy – at least where I want to live in Salt Lake – and a 7% interest rate makes me want to light things on fire.
But I did want to get a yard for my dog, so we’re finally getting out of the apartment and into a place where he has a little more space to chill.
Suffice to say, it’s been a lot and I’ve been tired.
As a kid, we moved across the country twice and it’s nowhere near as bad as that.
I was able to do most of it by loading various boxes into the back of my Rav4 and dropping them off on the way to work.
But still, it’s been hectic and I’ve just wanted to get it over with.
Now it’s mostly done and I’m getting back to doing some of the stuff I tend to deprioritize when life gets messy – like writing.
That said, this experience has made me think more deeply about something I tell people all the time.
“You have to learn to do it when you’re busy… because you’re always going to be busy.”
Modern life is a mess and it seems like we’re constantly on the edge of burnout for one reason or another.
So if something matters to you, you’re going to have to create time for it.
Because you’re likely never going to just “find time.”
You’re likely never going to “be done” with all the stuff you have to do and just magically have massive chunks open up in your schedule.
Even if that does happen, it almost certainly won’t last.
Something new will come up.
Other things will become important.
Stuff will always fill the space.
So if you want to do something, you should just do it.
Now, if you are going through a particularly busy period, like a move or a divorce or a marriage or a new kid or a new job one of the hundred other examples I could use here…
Maybe you aren’t going to do the exact version of the thing you wanted.
Maybe you’ve been thinking bout signing up for a marathon and you really just don’t have time to train for it properly right now.
That’s okay.
You should still start training.
Maybe you start with a shorter distance like a 5k and really put some work into that.
It takes a lot less time and you’ll still be able to improve as a runner.
And if you can train to run a decent 5k, you’ll have built most of the skills you need to run a marathon in a lot less time.
Then when it comes time to do the actual marathon, it’ll be a lot less daunting and you’ll be able to spend more time fine-tuning skills relevant to that specific distance.
I have this conversation with people all the time in the gym.
Person: How often do I need to lift to see improvements?
Me: Well, how often are you lifting now?
Person: **chuckle** I’m doing nothing right now.
Me: Well then, pretty much anything is going to give you more improvements than what you’re doing now. You could come in once a week and do one set of squats and that would still lead to more improvements than the zero squats you’re currently doing. So let’s start with something small.
…
It doesn’t need to be perfect for you to get started.
You just need to start.
And yes, I realize the irony here, considering I just took a couple weeks off from things that matter to me because I “got busy.”
But that’s what got me thinking about it.
Instead of writing some massive tome (like I am right now), I could still do something.
I mean, one option would be to use AI to do it for me like most people I know… but that kinda defeats the point of why I write in the first place.
But I could just write something shorter.
I could just get some ideas on paper and hope that someone else finds them valuable.
It doesn’t always need to be this long, last-minute effort to get something out there.
I could just do something – because even something small is better than nothing.
Whatever you’re thinking about doing, I bet there’s a step you could take today that would bring you closer to that goal.
Maybe you don’t have time for an hour run…
But I bet you could do twenty minutes.
Maybe you can’t even run right now…
But I bet you can do some sort of cardio and at least get moving.
Whatever it is, just start.
I bet you’ll be happier that you did.