A Death Defying Trick to Get Through the Day

I love a list. I love the satisfaction of crossing something off it. One slash of ink and it is obliterated. Wielding lead and pen like a superpower. One stroke at a time the looming monolith of the day’s tasks is felled. I strike a hero’s pose and my metaphoric cape flaps in the breeze. Oh yes, I’m a slayer. Secret fun fact: my first and most important death defying feat of the day is… 

waking up.

It’s open for debate whether I have any control over this, but I do my best to keep the odds in my favor. I feed and water the cells diligently making sure they get enough light. I keep the organs supported and synapses firing. And I do my best to navigate the maze of adulthood. 

The perils of living are many and varied but we can’t live in a constant state of fight or flight. If we lingered on the potential catastrophes of each day we’d be like squirrels trying to cross the street, hearts thumping 300 bpm as we skitter and stall in the middle of a lane. But what we can do daily is focus on the little wins that fuel the endorphins. 

I like to double down on that positive sense of momentum and give thanks for waking up in good health. Two things off the list and I haven’t even gotten out of bed. That first pee is a victorious release. 

Sure, somewhere between morning ablutions and morning coffee sabotaging thoughts creep in but then I remind myself that I started out on track and I can steer myself back to positivity and productivity. One task at a time.

Full disclosure, I had gotten out of the list making habit. A lot of habits stalled or changed in the past year, but this one had floundered for a while. But I rediscovered something about lists, they’re especially useful on the hard days. They give a path through that desert of time until I can rest and reset. Lists are an analog productivity tool, but they work. Especially for self-schedulers like artists and freelancers, a list ratchets up the returns on our efforts. Each morning starts with actionable tasks that when accomplished literally give the day a sense of completion.

My  first death defying trick today was  waking  up.

If you woke up today, you started out a winner.

Start as you mean to go on; productive and on a roll. 

Slay on.