How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.”

As most of you know, I do not have a job yet. Which is OK, the situation is temporary and will end soon. When it does, I know I will yearn for these carefree days where my schedule is dictated by whims and routine.

And that is what I want to talk about today: routines.

They can be good or they can be bad. I think it has a lot to do with momentum. If you get in a bad routine, such as sleeping until 10:00 AM each day, changing that to a more respectable hour can be rough. I have firsthand experience with this. It was blissfully slovenly until I couldn’t stand it any more.

I was in such a rut while my daughter was on winter break but now with the new school quarter starting, it helps that she leaves at 7:00 because I get up with her to drive her to school.

Now when we started this a couple of weeks ago, I made this ambitious plan to map out my entire day starting with an early wake up to eat breakfast before I take her to school and then hit the gym rather than going back to a warm comfortable bed.

For the most part, this morning routine has held and I wake up, make eggs, scoatmeal, and fruit for the both of us and then I take her to school, swing back by the house to pick up Carrie, and we head for the 24-Hour Fitness.

I’m happy that part has held because no matter what, I know that I get up when I should, I eat what I should be eating for breakfast, and I get a workout in everyday (even if I have to put up with Freakin’ Awesome Gym Stud).

But that is where it falls apart. I have a big gap of time between the time I get back home and have any other responsibility which is picking Steph up at school. Yes, it’s a perfect time to get things done and I do, here and there, but the lure of the nap looms and I usually cannot resist a bit of a snooze in the quiet, calm hominess of our abode.

So I was thinking today, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have made progress. You have your early morning routine in motion. Be happy about that.”

My next goal is to fix that mid morning to early afternoon nonsense. That, I will be filling with the job search. The way I see it, I will have a few hours in the morning, a break for lunch, and a few hours in the afternoon.

I think that an afternoon run to end that process and then the rest of the night can be used for computer, blog-writing, family time, and then my almost-required watching of 24 with Jack “Crack” Baur. An hour of reading before I go to bed should round out the night nicely.

I used to think that when I was looking for a job, it would be a daily 8-12 hour ordeal but I have come to realize that is not feasible. If I don’t incorporate exercise and an actual life into it, I will be miserable. I don’t want to come to hate the process of looking for a job.

All of this begs the question: how will this change when I am working?

Obviously, I will be working from about 7:00 AM to about 6:00 PM (I’m including commuting).

So this leaves a morning period, maybe a lunch period, and a night period.

If I am doing some hard training, I could wake up at 4:00 AM and get some kind of exercise done. I don’t see that happening for extended periods of time but maybe leading up to a big race.

The lunch one is tricky. I always ran at lunch when I worked in the Marine Corps but I had a lot of leeway with a “lunch hour” which normally went closer to an hour and a half. I don’t think I can get away with that in the civilian world.

On the one hand, I don’t want to eat a big nasty meal and then be tired for the rest of the afternoon but I also don’t want to get all sweaty and stinky in the middle of the work day. I guess that’s the eternal conundrum.

I know me. If there is a gym nearby, I’ll likely hit that. If not, probably a run, especially if there is a good trail or road route.

The night routine, again, could involve some exercise. That one is tough though because I have never been a night exerciser. Like everyone else, I am tired by the end of the day and I’ve had all day to talk myself out of the workout.

So with that said, I think the night routine will always be the computer, blog-writing, family time routine and that means I have the morning and the night routine in place already.

This is good news.

If I could sum it all up, I think it comes down to a few facts I need to keep in mind:

- My routine is not as bad as I thought it was
- I need to get and stay motivated
- I have kept a working schedule with lots of race training in the past
- I am a good organizer and planner
- I love routine

And all that points to this:

I need to get back to my planning, work towards implementing that plan, and put my feet on the carpet each morning with a motivation to tackle what I have planned to do WHEN I planned to do it.

See, easy.

Free Advice for Today: “Record the birthday heights of your children on the kitchen doorjamb. Never paint it.”