i woke up this morning with a determination that i haven’t felt in quite some time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that i was still a little pissed off that a team and coach who CHEATED their way to the AFC Championship game last year (and got penalized for it) won last night. How the fuck does that happen? i guess the same way a reality star gets elected president of the free world.
Jadedness aside, i woke up differently today than i had yesterday — and the day before that.
i woke up made my coffee, finished a piece for one of my freelance writing gigs, and then got dressed and went out for a walk — something that i haven’t done in a looooong time.
Yes, even performers get tired of training and get lazy. And i’ve been kinda uber-lazy these last few months. Lazy about my dreams. Lazy about my creativity, my writing, and my fitness.
i knew that if i could just make that first step, that first leap back into some semblance of a routine, that’s all it would take to initiate an avalanche of change. As i was walking, i heard a voice in my head say, “This is it. This is the first day of the rest of your life.”
But then my own internal voice — the one that wants to build an empire of drag, words, and craft — chimed in and said, “No. This is the first day of your dream life.“
i walked home thinking and reflecting on those words over and over again. i went into the kitchen and made my favorite shake: Kroger coconut milk, Garden of Life Raw Organic Fit protein, and Trader Joe’s frozen berry mix. Again, something else i hadn’t done in a long time.
i took a shower. Got out and started making a light lunch. As i was scooping my Morning Star Crumbles into my tacos, i heard another voice say: “What you eat is a love note to yourself.”
Whoa.
Today, all these little shifts in my thoughts, how i approached my daily activities, but more importantly how i approached my art happened because i woke up and committed myself FULLY to today being different than the last 185 and the first day of dream life.
My dream life where i am more productive than procrastinative. Where i focus more on my work and what i need to do than what others (via social media) are doing. Where i stop looking at the scale to determine my body worth and start focusing on how i’m feeling.
Because how you feel about yourself goes a long way — more so than those numbers — on what you believe you can and cannot do and how far you believe you’ve progressed.
Your dream life may look completely different than mine. And that’s perfect. We are individuals, not clones.
But here’s where we are the same: We’re never going to make our dream life a reality unless we take that first step.
Or as Seal would say, We’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy.
Crazy about our dreams — and just as insane in our bout to live them out.
It begins with a shift in our attitude and our internal dialogues.
My first step was telling myself that today is the first day of my dream life — and introducing a few habits that physically and mentally support that claim: getting out of my comfy cut-up Hennessy T-shirt, getting outside, making a shake, and writing this post about my current shifting.
It also means preparing for tomorrow a little bit today. It’s getting it in my head RIGHT NOW that i’m going to wake up tomorrow and do the exact same thing: wake up, make coffee, write a freelance piece, go outside, eat right, and create.
And then doing the same thing the next day — and the day after that. To infinity and beyond.
That’s how you build habits. That’s how you become who you set out to be. That’s how you start, slowly, to build your empire.
By waking up, telling yourself and then proving to you and the universe that today is THE FIRST FUCKING DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR DREAM LIFE.
And then get off our ass and meaning it.
Here’s to getting off (our asses that is)!
xo-