Three weeks ago to this day I went to a friend’s birthday party after work. It was a Tuesday.
Just a few days before, me and my roommate had agreed that having an in-bed-by-12-AM-rule during the week would be smart. I always get up at 6 AM, my sleep wouldn’t become too liquid.
Well…
Would be.
11:30 came and went and I was still at the party.
My roommate started joking: “Looks like the 12 AM just went out the window, didn’t it?”
I joked back: “That may be true, but the 6 AM part still stands.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Thomas and Jules started too: “Looks like you’ll be at school a bit later than usual tomorrow, huh?”
Me: “Just watch me.”
Around 12 AM, most people suddenly left, so my roommate and I decided to go too. Trains only came every 20 minutes by then, so when he said he’d finish his beer with a friend, I put in a quick 1-minute dash to the subway and made the 12:15 AM train.
I post a daily report of what I’ve accomplished on my Instagram story, which is the last thing I do before bed.
That went up at 12:54 AM that night.
5 hours and 27 minutes later…
It was an uphill battle for sure, but I made it to the study room at the same time as usual. I even posted some proof 😛
I’m not promoting a lack of sleep here. The point I’m making is this:
If I could wish for one thing, it’d be that once humans say they’re going to do something, they have to do it.
I’m not talking about succeeding. I’m talking about being forced to try.
Most of the time when people fall short of their potential, it’s not due to a lack of talent. Or luck. Or skill. It’s due to a lack of trying.
We could pull off a great deal more of the things we say we’re ‘gonna do,’ if only we showed up to swing the bat at the time and place we specified.
The far majority of our verbal commitments isn’t even that hard to live up to. We say we’ll cook, we’ll be at the party, we’ll get up early or finish that paper ahead of time.
And then we don’t. But these things are easy.
If we can’t even follow through on those, how will we live up to our much bigger aspirations? The crazy dreams? The challenges others think we’re not cut out for?
If everyone had to actually do what they say, the entire world would talk less and do more.
I think that’d be a good thing to wish for.
