I’ve been playing with a new routine for the month of August. Nearly a year and a half ago, I bought a good rowing machine. I use it a lot. I’ve tried rowing during the morning, which is hard; rowing over lunch, which is difficult to consistently schedule; and rowing after work, which requires a level of fastidiousness towards a shut-down routine that I do not possess.
The habit I quit the fastest is rowing in the morning. It’s hard to get out of bed and work out. Your body is cold, so it’s slower. You never get your best times in the morning. You’re groggy and grumpy. You get the benefits of an improved mood after a workout, sure, but those benefits are less observable because your comparison point pre-workout is “asleep.”
Despite that, my habit for the month of August is to attempt to work out every morning before I work. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have various rowing routines. Tuesday is strength training. Thursday is core day, with optional strength or rowing sessions on top of it. If I really need a break, I can walk on Thursdays instead.
I’m starting my second week of this. I hate it. To be blunt, I love working out, but I don’t love anything enough to want it before I have coffee.
But it also works. Or at least, it’s working now. If I remember, I’ll write again about how it’s going in a month.
There’s something about starting with the hard thing. I don’t mean eating the frog. I mean just doing something hard. It’s the same dopamine hit you get from a hard Dark Souls boss. Maybe it’s because I’m chronically depressed, but doing one hard thing before my brain can talk me out of it is the only way I know to do two hard things. A part of your brain says: “I can do this. I am not a failure. I’ve done this hard thing. I can do anything.”
Doing the hard thing gives you the strength to ask the most important question: “What’s next?”