There are quite a few times I feel justified to take a break, some of the time these are valid and I do feel the rest helped. But only some of the time. Most times, there is a voice in my head says, you might regret this. It turns out to be true, not because I didn't do it but the rest of the day I'm haunted by the thought of having quit when I could have actually just done the thing. Doing the thing happens to be the kindest thing you could have done. This could be anything, this morning it was streaming, sometimes it's going to the gym and other times is skipping desert. They vary, but there is that moment of doubt. I'm cultivating a new rule, if there is a doubt the answer is no. I noticed this while playing badminton last week. It was a very close game, there was one point that I wasn't sure if it was in or out, out meant I lost the point. And I decided that it was in, you see it was just a doubt I could have been right. But it took away from the victory, afterwards I was like would have been a better victory if there was no doubt. At which point I would have been proud with a loss. It sounds silly, small an irrelevant but it's a good life lesson.
When in doubt the answer is no
Think about the times when you met someone and you were not sure or something did not feel right, or the time you decided to skip the gym when you were not sure. It nags at you the rest of the day. At which point you tell yourself, should have just fucking gone to the gym. Also, later on you see the dilemma clearly and realize there was none. You could have just done the thing. Because when you are truly exhausted you don't have to think about it, you know.
It's a small experiment but I'm going to try it on for size over the next few weeks. Whenever I have a doubt in my head that says If I should skip it, I'm going to not do that. I'm grateful to me for streaming this morning. I wasn't sure if I should and then I just sat there uncomfortable as fuck. At which point I was like might as well just do it. It also helped that I stumbled upon this article about small moves leading to compounding shifts. It made me remember the power of doing the smallest version of something daily and how it is more powerful than any grand effort done occasionally. It's made all the difference to my life in the last year or so.