I can’t believe that it’s July 4th already.
I use this day to reflect on the first half of the year.
My mind started to wander as soon as I sat down to think about goals, objectives, a what’s been accomplished.
I ended up spending a half-hour thinking about running (as opposed to actually running) and circling around the concept that running is life.
Running is life. Not that I need to run, in fact, I do more of a slow jog these days than actual running.
The results are the same: mental clarity, working up a sweat and fighting off the cheeseburgers.
When I’m out and tired and want to quit I repeat things in my head to mind fuck myself into forcing my body to keep moving.
My mantra through the pain is “just keep moving”.
Just keep moving.
Running is life in the sense that things around you will always change, but you have to keep moving.
The only alternative is to quit, and that is rarely a good option.
The pain doesn’t last forever.
I feel great on the other side, after taking time to recover from the abuse I just did to myself.
Kind of weird when I think about it: I inflict pain on myself in order to experience a sweet release.
But we all do that don’t we.
Running is life.
I just keep moving.
Running and writing.
I’ve been creating niche blogs and digital products since 2003.
It gets boring. So boring that I’ve walked away from some of my sites for years, and some forever, which I shouldn’t do.
I started writing on Medium back in 2019.
When the money started coming in from Medium it became an addiction.
To feed that addiction I put insane productivity quotas on myself which completely killed my creativity.
It got to the point where I was cranking out complete shit just to hit a productivity number.
It was boring and painful and I stopped for months.
Quitting is rarely a good thing.
So I applied the lessons from running to writing on Medium - I jog now. Slow and steady. No more production quotas, I write when I feel like it, and it’s healthy.
The long format of Medium is also something that stresses me out, so I put a lot out on Twitter these days. Tweets are short, and to the point, and we can communicate with each other on Twitter better than on Medium.
Running, writing, and life.
The past few years have been hard. So much has changed. I’ve become something of a hermit and that’s not a good thing.
I haven’t thought about quitting, which is personally encouraging. But I know a few that have and that’s incredibly painful for me.
Now that more things that I like to do are open again (restaurants, concert venues, sports arenas, gyms) I force myself to get up and go.
I still feel like I’m watching a movie. Everyone around me is an actor in some weird production.
But I’ve always been a huge people watcher.
My weirdness is starting to show, so I’ll wrap this up.
Happy Independence Day to my American friends.
Just keep moving.
Hope everything is good in your world. Drop a comment or reach out any time, I’d love to hear from you.
Travis