Larry Myers

I’ve found that motivation and routine happen when you ask yourself the right questions instead of the wrong ones.

• Do I want to go swim today? (Yes, you are going swimming today. It’s good for you and you enjoy it.)
• Do I have a clean swim suit? (You packed your gym bag last night, it’s right by the back door.)
• Do I have time to go swimming? (Yes, you blocked out an hour on your calendar when lap swim is open at lunch.)
• What if something comes up at work? (It won’t. You’ve gotten plenty done this morning and set yourself as away on Slack.)

These are all the wrong questions I try to ask myself, each a little opportunity to find some bullshit excuse to sit in my home office and do nothing. Instead I respond to the alarm on my phone that it’s 11:50. It reminds me to slip on shoes, grab my bag, and head to the back door. I’ve had to teach myself to push away all those little questions that are really just the procrastination talking. I asked myself all the right questions last night so it would be easier to ignore all the wrong ones this morning.

It’s so easy to do nothing, never to get started. By the time I’m 100 meters into my swim I’m puzzled how doing nothing could ever have been an option. It’s the act of getting started that matters for me. Just the tiniest bit of momentum, focusing on the immediate next thing, and pushing away all the little questions is what works.