Getting Back on the Wagon

Restarting (or starting anew)

Estimated reading time: 4 min, 21 seconds

Dear readers,

It’s been a while since our last post (I appreciate those of you who have asked what happened to the newsletter!), and I noticed last week that the notion of coming out of neutral and accelerating towards posting again had become more daunting than the actual task of committing to one of my queued up topics, finding flow for a little bit, and just publishing a post. 

That very reflection led to this quick detour post - hope you enjoy it!

Read this post if…

• You have an action that you’ve been wanting to re-start (or start anew) - whether it’s a task, a habit, a project, a conversation - , and would like a quick mindset boost

• You’re interested in some quick tactics to overcome inertia that I’ve played around with

• You’re here for the reboot of Musings, or have just been dying to hear from me after so long :D

Falling off the wagon

We’ve all been here. 

We’re in a great flow and moving forward with something that makes us feel like a rockstar: working out regularly, eating healthy, reading every day, meditating every morning, feeling in sync with ourselves and the people closest to us. 

And then the disruption happens: we travel, work gets busy, we get sick, a bunch of fun or cool stuff that’s also draining happens in close succession. In short, life comes knockin’.

So we fall off the wagon… and even when we get back on, we’re stuck in neutral. We’re not ready to park because we want to move forward again, but pushing the accelerator doesn’t do anything. Over time, we start to fixate on all sorts of things:

• How much distance we haven’t covered, or 

• How much time we’ve lost, or 

• How our wagon has developed some rust, or maybe

• How nice it is to just be comfortable in neutral and not have to work to move forward

Or maybe we’re not even on the wagon yet, and our story is more about wanting to get on the wagon for the first time, but we just haven’t made space for that yet, or find that the entire ordeal of getting onto the wagon, turning it on, checking that the coast is clear, and starting to move just feels so formidable. 

Improving our ability to get back on

Expect to fall off the wagon

This one is all about managing self expectations, and softening the landing before falling off the wagon. Before we even start something, we can build in the understanding that we’ll most likely face a few stops and starts. 

What matters is that we get back to what we want when the opportunity presents itself. 

Expecting to have stops leads to not having to grapple as hard with the usual voices of self-disappointment during those breaks in flow. This newsletter is an example from my own life. While my initial design of not committing to a release schedule may have contributed to this larger than desired break, it’s also what’s allowed me to not beat myself up over it and to get back much more easily.

A vision with space to work towards it can be a powerful motivator. A vision without that space creates negative pressure and disappointment. Recognize where any particular vision or goal falls in your priorities, and design your own expectations accordingly.

Re-orient around one thing and one thing only: Starting

This is all about cultivating the mindset that allows you to go from 0 to 60 at a pace that’s sustainable, and won’t break your wagon with the pressure of expecting to get right back to the speed you were at before.

For some period, drop the larger goals of whatever you’re going for, take it slow, and just focus on starting.

• Working out: for the first 2-3 days, just show up to the gym; don’t worry about how many reps you do

• Writing: the first 2 times back, just spend 15 minutes and get some words on a page; don’t worry about producing an entire piece

• Connecting with someone after a long time: Just shoot a text asking if they’d be down to chat or hangout next week; don’t worry about having your eventual time together totally figured out

Working back to your place of flow or your growth edge will come naturally from your starting point.

Learn about each piece of the puzzle

The steps to starting something might look something like this:

• Identify the smallest outcome that would feel satisfying

• Set aside time during a high energy and high attention point of your day to carry out that action

• Identify the environment that you want to carry that action out in

• Identify the smallest possible action or set of actions that would get you rolling towards your task

• Show up

• Start

Getting to a place where you can easily carry out these steps might take a little bit of experimentation and self reflection over time. As an example, here is what it was for me on getting started with the newsletter:

• Smallest outcome: sending a post, regardless of length or connection to my writing goals

• High energy/attention point of day: morning on a low meetings day

• Environment: coffee shop (as opposed to my working space at home)

• Smallest set of actions: Get to coffee shop, minimize windows, open blank google doc, type first word

• Starting: I looked at the page, counted down from 5, and wrote my first word

Experiment and see what works best for you!

Longer exploration of putting ideas into action

For those interested, Gabe and I did the 2nd episode of our podcast, Woven Wings Live, on the theme of Getting over the Hump with Kevin Chanthasiriphan, co-founder of Immi Ramen (and subscriber to this newsletter!), that you can listen to here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Parting inquiries

What have you been wanting to start up (or back up) for a long time? 
What’s important about that to you?
What is the smallest step towards your goal that would feel satisfying?

Please share any thoughts or reflections in the comments!

Random shares 

• Quote that I’m ruminating on: “If you’re not failing, you’re not even trying” - Denzel Washington

• Other quote: “Suppose someone standing by a clear, sweet spring were to curse it: it just keeps right on bringing drinkable water bubbling up to the surface. Even if he throws mud or dung in it, before long the spring disperses the dirt and washes it out, leaving no stain. So how are you to have the equivalent of an ever-flowing spring? If you preserve your self-reliance at every hour, and your kindness, simplicity, and morality.” - Marcus Aurelius (via the Marginalian)

• Track I’m jamming out to: Shakira, Rauw Alejandro - Te Felicito

• Writing music: Melodic House Mix 2021

Till next time,

Rahul