I happened to read Scott Adams's (creator of Dilbert) autobiography / self-help book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big a couple of years ago. While I disliked most of the book due to the author's smug storytelling style, there were a couple of nice life advice there. Mainly this one. Although he didn't put it like that - he was just talking about routine and about how you shouldn't waste time making unnecessary decisions during the day. Nevertheless, this is what I took home from the chapter.
Where will you be two years from now, on a Saturday morning, 6 am?
(Adams tells us in the book that he'll be finishing some art work for comics.) According to Adams, routine is one of the keys to happiness. Wake up at the same time every day, have a morning routine that you execute every morning (according to the book, he eats a banana and has coffee and then starts finishing the artwork), and do your thing. The ritual in its entirety should not change, ever, so you can know today what you'll be doing in two years time. On a Saturday. At 6.20 am.
What do you think you'll be doing on a Saturday, late December in 2020, at 6.20 am? Are you sleeping? Are you out for a morning exercise? Are you having coffee and reading a newspaper? Are you still up from the day before, pulling an allnighter with a project you need to finish?
Thinking about this and figuring it out forces you to think about what you want to do with your life - and could even change it.
The first image that came to my mind was sitting by a window over a lake view, my laptop open and shovwing a file containing the draft of one of my future novels. Perhaps a cup of coffee or green tea on the table. I've already been up for at least an hour - I've had a nice and refreshing morning jog outside in a crisp chilly air with a rising sun - before sitting down to work. (I feel happy just thinking about this. Perhaps I should write more.)
Do you think you'll be doing the same things you're doing now? Do you think you'll be sleeping at the early hour? What will Saturdays be for in your life in 2020? What would you, in an ideal world, be doing?
Change your life now, and start working for that dream now. Start doing the things you envision yourself doing in 2020 NOW. Organize your life according to it. Do it, every Saturday at 6.20 am, from next Saturday on.
See if you've changed your life by 2020.
RK
