28 Days Later
6/16/2014-6/22/2014: 18,000 words written. 19,447 words edited.
I counted how many days I've been working yesterday. I'm on my twenty-eighth day as I write this, and when this gets published, it'll be up to thirty-two days. That includes weekends.
Every excuse I've ever heard about why people don't do something revolves around time. They just don't have enough of it. That's a scary thought. All you have here, in this world, is time and opportunity (If you're born in the US. If you're born in Somalia, don't listen to any of this.). Yet, you don't have enough time to do the things you're saying you want to. What happened to it? Did someone steal it? Did you lose it?
I imagine they're squandering it. I don't know exactly where the time is being spent, but I know that no one stole it from them. I know that it wasn't lost, put in some jeans pocket before taking them off and then not able to find it again until you decide to wear those same pair of jeans.
A good buddy of mine reads a few hours each day. I was stunned at this, and slightly jealous. I asked him how in the world he could read that much each day? I mean, can you imagine how much smarter he's going to be than the rest of us? (Except me, obviously. He'll never be smarter than me.) I might get thirty minutes of reading in a day, but that's it--I'll never be able to keep up with him. I could say I don't have the time, but that would just be a lie. I have the time, I just spend it differently. I spend it working for three hours before my day job. I spend it working through my lunch. I spend it watching TV with my wife at night. I spend it walking my dog. The man is dedicated to his education; I'm not as dedicated.
I'm really curious how long of a streak I can go for working. If I hit fifty days in a row, I think that would be kind of cool. I have no vacations planned, so I think it's doable. I'm curious how many days in a row you've worked at what you care about? Being a good spouse? How many days have you showed up in a row saying, it doesn't matter what happens, I'm going to work on this today. Exercising? Eating healthy? How many days are you taking off?