I am weak-willed. Easily distracted. Flexible in reality. I like the fluidity of perception.
I like that a hundred people could look at one painting, and we would get a thousand interpretations.
But that also makes me terrible at dieting. And exercising. And spending my money well.
The moment often outweighs the futuristic savings. Of course, I will take my visiting friends to my favorite bar. Even if I said I wouldn’t drink this week. Or that I already got take-out because I didn’t cook the day before.
So I picked up the old practice of marking off a calendar for daily habits.
For the past three months, I prioritized three things: 1) reading, 2) exercise, and 3) personal projects.
The calendar on the whiteboard, to me, is a structural truth. It either has the mark for the day, or it doesn’t. There’s no lying to it. Now I could lie to myself. I could walk around the block, and call it exercise. But to what end? So I leave that day unmarked. It’s okay.
I thought I’d only do it for 30 days. But after the month, it was easy enough to redraw the calendar. And again in another month.
The tally so far:
1) 20 books, only missed one day of reading out of 92 days.
2) 46 days of exercise, so batting over 50%
3) 18 days of personal projects. (Which roughly conforms to the available free time I would give it.)
I’ve been finding over and over again in my adult life the need for help. Even if it’s just a whiteboard. I can only hold so much in my present mind, and things that I don’t want to do slip easily. So I build structural truths to keep me honest.
Dynamic Hypocrisy 