I’ve never been great at sticking to plans. Something about the rigidity of plans always made me skittish, if not outright rebellious. It can be a real problem. When I dislocated both of my knees while practicing Tae Kwon Do when I was younger, I was given an exercise plan. Each day I was supposed to use a stationary bike for at least sixty minutes. Every other day I was supposed to do three sets of twelve reps on a leg press machine. I stuck to this for a week. The next week I went three times. The week after that I went once. Then I stopped going for a month.
My problem with the plan was self-enforced rigidity. I set out a specific time to go to the gym every day, but that time was right in the middle of a bunch of mentally exhausting classes, so I often didn’t go. Instead, I would watch videos on my phone until the next class. The problem wasn’t the plan that I was given but the plan that I made. I locked myself into a time period that was infeasible which lead me to missing the crucial point of the plan: exercising. Had I remained flexible about the times I worked on restrengthening my knees, then I wouldn’t have to worry about my knees hurting whenever the barometric pressure changes now. Of course, that’s not the only reason I didn’t stick to the plan.
It’s hard for me to stick to a plan that isn’t mine or that didn’t have my influence in it’s creation. I would make a terrible soldier. With my physical therapy regimen, I didn’t feel like I could comfortably keep up the pace. I was constantly sore in the worst ways. I didn’t have the drive to keep going after working out. I was exhausted from doing too much and overexerting myself. Instead of throttling it back a notch I pushed myself full force. The candle burned from both ends and was quickly snuffed out. Another example of this is an extracurricular online writing course I took suggested I write at least 2000 words a day outside of any curricular writing I was doing. I tried as hard as I could but I could not pump out those 2000 words and keep afloat of everything else. So what ultimately gave, I’m ashamed to say, was my personal writing.
Clearly, my writing hasn’t stopped. I write this blog as a personal experience every day. It varies in length but I make sure to have a completed blog by noon every day. I try to write before bed, but if I’m too tired I write before breakfast. Afterwards, I work on fiction projects. I keep pushing forward to make sure my writing is put out there in one form or another.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m starving this morning.
A Daily Dose of Zach 