It is amazing how much a change in weather can affect me. Sleeping outdoors in a cold rain storm starts a cycle that is difficult for me to break. I wake up grumpy from lack of good sleep. Instead of starting my routine of breakfast, coffee, and writing, I lay in my sleeping bag feeling sorry for myself and refreshing Facebook. Without my daily routine of writing I seem to lack the motivation necessary to work out. This leads me to neglect my diet. I end up eating a lot more junk and sweets than I normally would and I forgot to take my supplements as well. One bad night leads me to make bad decisions where my body and mind are treated terribly.
That was basically the situation yesterday. We woke up on the side of Highway 75 in Oklahoma after a night of cold rain. It was an incredibly stressful day and we made the tough decision to rent a U-Haul to take us to Dallas instead of biking the final 200 miles or so. I felt defeated and a little like a failure. This is the first time we have abandoned such a large chunk of our journey, but it was simply unsafe. This is one of our adventures, not our last adventure. Death may be the greatest adventure of all but I am simply a Level 34 Dwarf Priest, I’m not ready to solo the Afterlife. I am trying not to be too hard on myself, bicycling is a vehicle for the adventure but it is not the adventure itself. We are still doing something incredible, even if we have to use an internal combustion engine instead of an internal plant-to-muscle engine when the roads are unsafe.
Anyway, after waking up yesterday feeling terrible I got way out of my routine. I did manage to write something but my heart wasn’t in it and I neglected my push-ups and pull-ups. I also didn’t take my nootropics or creatine, and instead filled my belly with calories. It just wasn’t a good day, but it did make me aware of an area of my life in which I can challenge myself and improve. Much of the environment is out of my control, but how I react to the environment is in my control. After all, I do have free will, or at least the illusion of free will. I’m not convinced free will exists, but that is another blog post.
From now on I am going to try and shift my perspective. When weather or other factors beyond my control change my plans I will see that as a challenge from the universe. It is easy to get into a productive routine when everything is under your control, but that isn’t how the world works. Things will be out of your control eventually, but that isn’t a bad thing. Those challenges make you stronger and quicken your growth. You can’t fight baby wolves all day if you want to really level up in life, eventually you got to go find some dragons to slay.
Wandering Oak 