The right rituals

Success in life in whichever field of endeavor is determined by meeting deadlines. Not deadlines set by other people but deadlines that you set yourself. This isn't taught at school - in fact, success at school and university boils down to meeting deadlines set by others - getting coursework and homework done and preparing for exams. But once you've left full-time education, you need to be constantly setting your own goals and targets. To meet them, you you have to discipline yourself rigorously. Part of this is the habit of setting and monitoring your attainment of daily goals. It's easy to have a simple goal of getting up, going to work for 9am, doing what's expected of you, and keeping your nose clean. Other people's deadlines, other people's expectations.

But what do want from life?

Set yourself too many unrealistic goals and you will be disappointed. Stress takes over as perfectionism proves hard to attain. Set yourself too few goals and your potential as a human being will go unfulfilled.

Maybe a banal example, but for me, exercise has a crucial importance in keeping healthy into old age, I have a set of seven daily exercises which have become routine - ritual, almost. And as I tackle them throughout my day, I come up against the dangers of procrastination. It's all too easy to devise a plausible excuse and delay something that you should be doing now. There's always something more pleasant, something distracting, that gets in the way. And then the exercises bunch up at the end of the day, along with other things on the to-do list, and time runs out.

First thing in the morning after I wake up is automatically make the bed. No thought required - it's the first thing, no questions, always, every day. Then I do pull-ups (up to 20 in one go right now) then I get dressed and fill the kettle. As it's coming to the boil I do squats - at the moment about 50 in one go - and so before I've even had my coffee, I've already done two of the seven sets of exercise. 

This makes it harder to go for a day without exercise - I generally aim to do another two-three during the day and leave the rest to the evening. Determination wanes over time, so frequent new starts are important. New Year and Lent are two big ones, but even the beginning of the month is better than the end, by which time I can convince myself that four or five sets of exercises is enough.

It isn't. If I skip sit-ups for a few days, for example, I can feel the numbness returning to my big toe. If I skip weight exercises for a few days, I can feel my left shoulder stiffening. Too much beer and not enough plank - the spare tyre starts inflating. Not doing back extensions? I see my ageing father, bent almost double as he'd shuffle along.

Another important element is a to-do list for the day. To write down all the tasks that you should get done during the day, office work and otherwise. Blogging is has become an essential defining part of my life I must record what's my consciousness observes thoughts I have had which I keep in a notepad. The ability to dictate directly into the phone as I'm walking is a great innovation. 

Squeezing distractions and procrastination out of my life (especially that temptation for that short-term dopamine hit from Twitter) is an important process. The spreadsheet approach works for me as it is cast in stone; there's no point lying - writing in exercises I didn't do or paces I didn't walk. The aim, as always since 2014, is to Beat Last Year. And I'm on track to do that in every area except press-ups (unless during the autumn I manage to crank out 50 a day every day until Christmas). Creativity also; more thinking, more searching for intuitions, more writing and photography.

A walk at sunset, catching the sun disappearing from view from the embankment above the railway line between Chynów and Sułkowice. Going out last thing at night when there are no clouds to gaze up at the starry sky in amazement. Two rituals that form an important part of my działka life, adding to the spiritual richness.

Laziness needs to be defeated from within, and only you can defeat it. This is difficult to achieve if it has not been inculcated at an early age. 

This time last year:
Measuring the Immeasurable

This time three years ago:
Heading Home [my father leaves Warsaw for the last time]

This time five years ago:
From my father's historic return to Warsaw

This time six years ago:
Country life in a capital city 

This time seven years ago:
My ogród is my działka

This time eight years ago:
Over the hill at Harrow

This time nine years ago:
Behold and See - the Miracle of Lublin - Pt 1.

This time 11 years ago:
Quiet afternoon in the bazaar

This time 12 years ago:
The politics of the symbol