Climbing

I went rock climbing today for the first time. It's really hard and really fun. I think the part I like the most about it is failing. I think I was only able to make it to the top on a few of them, and they were the easiest ones. There were also ones where I couldn't even get halfway up. But failing made me want to come back at it harder. My body (especially my forearms) gave up on me, but my mind was always fighting for more. It felt good.

Something that came up after, I still hadn't done my 15 pull ups for the day. So when I got back home I tried to do it. But my forearm was done, I couldn't even grip the bar with my right hand. First I tried one handed pull ups with my left hand. No dice. I thought maybe I could just skip the day, since I was basically doing a whole bunch of pull ups while climbing. But I decided to do it, I tied my right hand on to the bar and did one pull up at a time until I got to the 15. Definitely the hardest day of my challenge, it took about 30 minutes to finish. But it made me think, at most, I only need to spend half an hour on this challenge. It made me realize:

- Every day, you should be able to do at least one thing that you want to do.
- You can most likely find at least one thing that you want to do every day that will take less than 30 minutes.
- If you're not a) in jail b) in a cage c) a slave d) something else really extreme, you should be able to find 30 minutes in your day to do that something you want to do.

Wouldn't it be really sad if you went through a day and realized that you didn't do one thing that you really wanted to do? Obvious answer, of course, but sometimes it does happen. We get sucked into routine, going through motions, pushing things for a later time because something else is 'more important'. But every day our soul needs refilling. I remember reading this article saying, think of your body as a car that operates 24/7. You would never expect your car to get you from one place to the next without systematic refueling, just as you know there's no point in putting more gas in the tank than it's designed to hold. But that's how we operate our bodies sometimes. We run on empty, super hungry, then overeat. It basically says that this style of eating is almost counterproductive in terms of working out.

I feel the same way about happiness. You can't stock up in one day and expect it to get you through the week. Working for the weekend isn't enough. You need to find something you can do every day that is just for you. Doesn't have to take much time, doesn't even necessarily have to be productive. Just something that you do because you decide you want to do it. And that's why I tied my hand up today, because it's something I wanted to do, because I wanted to climb up and get better.

'Today is the best day to get better.'