This month it’s time to stop being so damn lazy. Sloth is the sin I was guilty of most last month and that stops now. The challenge is to work out arms/core every day this month for two minutes. I realize that two minutes doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, but when was the last time you went to the gym every day for a month straight? Exactly. I’ve tried to start work out routines on countless occasions with zero success. I always go too hard too fast and burn myself out after the first week or two. Then, being burnt you stop exercising completely. I want this simple two minute routine to stick so that I can add to and improve it over time. If the habit hasn’t been solidified, then it’s only an action. An action alone, without the daily repetition is like an equation without the equals sign. You can add a+b+y+z+… all day, but they will never build on each other until they = habit.

Other than nerding out on math habit routines this month, I plan on adhering to a broader sense of No Sloth. Waking up earlier, making sure I write everyday again, working out daily, not being lazy with my food choices, my waste choices, or how I choose to spend my precious time.  It’s about making those small seemingly insignificant choices during your day, even if they aren’t the most comfortable or convenient at the time.Wake up, pee, brush teeth, what’s next? You could

A) Go back to sleep

B) Get breakfast somewhere warm

C) Drive down to Salt Lake to run errands

D) Write at the library

It is so easy for me to pull that sleeping bag back over my head and sleep for another two hours (especially in a van that’s 26 degrees), but I can’t continue to make that choice because those are valuable hours that I need to be spending furthering my skills as a writer so that I can change the way I live.

There are a lot of questions people ask themselves and others about the methods to their madness.

Who are your favorite authors?

What got you interested in beekeeping?

Where did you learn to build grandfather clocks?

How did you make that cappuccino foam look like a snowflake?

These are all questions to be learned from for sure, but none of them matter more than the simplest question of them all.

Why?

Why you choose to do something is the most important factor in determining if you will succeed or fail. That internal motivation fuels you through aching bones and a tired head to get back up and do it again the next morning in spite of jack frost nipping at not only your nose. Without that concrete why, you have no reason not to sleep in. No reason not to sloth out and stagnate on the  branch you’re on.

This month, it’s time to stop being a sloth (side note: did you know sloths move so slow they actually grow moss on their backs?). It’s time to start moving through the trees like a monkey instead, swinging from branch to branch with a speed and agility no sloth could comprehend. Sure, vine swinging is riskier, and you could fall a long way down and get hurt, but the rewards are so much greater than sitting in stagnation and growing moss on your back.

Don’t be a sloth this month, swing through the canopies instead and embrace your inner monkey today.

OO oo! AAA aah! (those are monkey noises)