keep going after a bad day... or a bad week
don't let the RUT cult win!
One bad day or one bad week shouldn’t be the pivoting point for you or me. I know it’s very hard to resist the downward pull when all you want to do is give up on everything & let the meaninglessness of life takeover.
But if we don’t take control of our life at this moment. Days will turn into weeks, weeks will turn into years. And looking back, you & I will have a wasted life with “Potential”
In childhood this word “potential” used to give me a certain sense of pride. I had a firm believe that the future was mine to own. Now that word just gives me an ick. Because now it symbolizes, “hasn’t done anything yet.”
I still want to wake up with the conviction that the future is mine to own.
But I have added a caveat to this conviction.
If I seize the day, every day, my friend. The present, future and past. All are mine to own. I am the decisive factor in everything. Life didn’t happen to me. I happened to life.
What does “Seize the day” means?
Seize the day is basically, did I do what I set out to do? Did I overcome the roadblocks in my way? Did I sleep like baby with satisfaction that I really did everything?
Well, unfortunately every day is not that day. Some days it’s hard to sleep, hard to wake up, hard to move things around.
But if these days go checked, they act like a cult and initiate you into a rut. It will begin with tiny shifts in your energy, mood and habits. One skipped workout, one late night, the four I’ll do it tomorrow’s, the one-off day that spirals into a 3:47 a.m. cookie and a halku scroll session. Then, by the time you realize what’s happening, the cult has already done its job.
But if you are able to catch yourself, right before the moment you are about to fall.... things can be different.
This is such a common problem that Lewis Corse made a framework for this:
The RUT Framework
R - Recognize the slip
We all have our patterns. When we start slipping we move towards the same blackhole we came out of in the past. So, ask yourself:
When I start slipping, what are the first things I start and stop doing?
Here are some of my slips or the things I start or stop doing when I am slipping:
I stay up late
I read too much. More than average. As if I am hiding from the world and taking a refuge in the books.
I break my streak of “no junk food” I start craving all sorts of unhealthy stuff.
I start making excuses for not going out.
The intent her isn’t resistance. It’s just becoming aware, “oh! it’s happening.”
Awareness of the problem, solves half the problem.
U - Use your anchors
Once, you are aware that you are slipping, do the smallest version of the right thing to stop the slip. But what’s the right thing?
Your awareness of what the right thing is comes from your awareness of what your three ingredients are for a good day.
For me that’s:
A 60 min walk with good music. Absolutely resets my brain.
Reading. But specific books of Steven Pressfield & Robert Greene. They give me a kick in the butt to keep moving.
Reviewing my previous work & notes. It starts with a 5-min flip through but ends up being hours of exploration. I get filled with so many ideas that I feel like an idiot for wasting so much time and get started with work.
This small direction tilt early on prevents a big crash later.
T - Time your stops
Now, you’re getting some momentum back. But think of it like water in a cup that’s given to you in a desert. You are very far from a lake. So when drinking the water, you need to time your stop and protect the water for tomorrow.
Basically, stop before you are empty to keep moving forward.
A cool example of this, Ernest Hemingway. He had this one rule for writing. “Stop when it’s getting good.”
Because if you stop while you have energy, you’ll want to return and do the same thing tomorrow.
So, that’s the framework. But honestly, you don’t really need to know these steps. Just catch yourself early on, before the rut cult initiates you, and you will be fine.
The goal of this isn’t never to slip. It’s just recover faster.
Keeping going after a bad day.
... or a bad week.
Poitu varen,
Akanksha
P.S: What are your thoughts after reading this? I’d love to know.