Do I have anything to show for today? Or has another day just gone by? Have I inched forward, even in the tiniest of ways?
ZERO DAYS – MAKING PLANS AND DOING NOTHING
You look at the clock and cringe inside. Somehow another day has gone by, and yet, there’s nothing really to show for it.
You might have had plans and lists and schedules, but somehow you got derailed, and none of it happened. Again.
It’s already pretty late, and probably no point in even trying; you realize you just wasted another day of your life.
You feel defeated, slightly disgusted that you cannot seem to keep any promises to yourself. You have a firm plan to redeem yourself tomorrow.
You promise yourself to do better tomorrow, with a fresh start.
The only problem is that all those ‚ tomorrows’ move like the horizon.
But the real trick is to learn how to create your own fresh starts anytime you need them.
Now, imagine a different afternoon, when you take a deep breath, look around, and feel calm and accomplished. Maybe not in a spectacular way, but still. You got something done, you got a little further in your quest, you are a little closer to reaching your goals.
You were so close to throwing in the towel but decided to persevere anyway.
You just decided you didn’t want another ZERO DAY in your life.
Vow to never have another Zero Day in life.
WHAT IS A NON-ZERO DAY
A Zero Day is when you haven’t progressed at all. Nothing. Nada. Null.
Zero days are like pebbles in your pockets that will weigh you down.
The idea of the Non-Zero Day is the principle that every day should get you a step closer to our more important goals.
In today’s hectic world, it often means we live reactive and non-proactive (or creative) lives.
We do what others demand us to do but often procrastinate on our personal goals.
We like to picture our ideal selves sometime in the future when we have more time, more energy, more discipline, and motivation to pursue our ambitious goals. Just not today, not now, not yet.
The reality, however, is unlikely to fully cooperate with us.
You can, of course, wait until you have 6 months of uninterrupted time and unlimited funds to work on your dream business (even though you don’t know just yet what your dream business could be), but the chances of this happening are probably pretty slim.
And guess what, for many people, even if they do have more free time and resources, they will find other excuses.
You can keep telling yourself that one day you will wake up ready to do the work or just start working towards your goals now.
PROCRASTINATION & ZERO DAYS
Procrastination affects even the best of us, but some are more prone to it than others.
The sad reality is, many of us live a distracted life, stay in a reactive mode and wait for the circumstances to change:
– for a better timing
– for more motivation
– for the stars to align
– for the Muse to sing your name
– for the wind to blow and move your boat across the oceans to your destination
In real life, however, minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days, and days into years. And not much, if anything at all, happens.
GIVE UP THE ALL OR NOTHING MENTALITY
Fresh starts are great and helpful, but for some people, they never really happen. They become the forever Next Monday, Tomorrow, 1st Of January, or something even vaguer like ‚spring’ or subsequent months.
EVERY MOMENT CAN BE A FRESH START
If you have a tendency to procrastinate and wait for the perfect time to start-stop. Remember that time is just a mental construct, and you can compartmentalize your day in many ways. Maybe instead of thinking in 24h chunks, think about dividing your days into morning, midday, afternoon, evening. Every chunk of the day can be a fresh start and a chance to get back on the horse.
COMBAT PERFECTIONISM
You don’t have to do things ‚right’ to start moving forward; you just need to start somewhere and do it.
Most of the time, there will be many opportunities to polish things later, so don’t let perfectionism stop you.
- aim low – every little thing you accomplish counts!
- it’s not about doing a lot once in a while, but about planting little seeds on a daily basis and gaining momentum
FEELING BAD ABOUT ANOTHER ZERO-DAY UNFOLDING? TRY THIS
Yes, you’ve wasted some time, and that’s fine. No need for any guilt trips here.
- Just decide on a tiny little thing that could move you forward, set a timer for anything between 2 and 15 minutes, and just start working on it.
- We like to discount the tiny efforts and tiny gains, but even a one-minute workout is better than no workout at all; 5 minutes of writing are better than zero!
Inching forward on a NON-ZERO DAY means you will keep moving forward, no matter the style. It can be imperfect, clumsy, sketchy; it doesn’t matter HOW you do it; it just matters that you simply do.
It’s the art of showing up.
It’s writing the shitty first draft.
It’s cleaning 70% of your standard.
It’s about snapping you out of your meta life when you just think about doing things into your real life when you actually do something.
ARE YOU READY TO TRY THE NON-ZERO-DAY APPROACH?
Check out this post on how to get you started!
