Brrr. Brrr. My Apple Watch silently vibrates. It’s Saturday morning, 5.30 a.m., and I hit the snooze button. The second time. I’m still tired and don’t feel the usual energy of early mornings. Just a few more minutes.
The last days were tough. A big project to finish at work with most days full of meetings. Negligible progress on my side projects (my 2-year-old son finds it great fun right now to start his day early, too. Like before 6 a.m-early). No time to finish the articles I was planning. Plus I didn’t feel well enough to exercise.
A bad combo. This all entered my mind as I gradually woke up yesterday morning. I felt bad for barely crossing off any of my usual goals this week.
I ended the day completely opposite. I was thrilled. So what happened?
After pondering over all the things I didn’t do this week for another couple of minutes, my son crawled over and asked me to get up with him. He smiled at me with a big grin and was ready to kick off the weekend.
We brewed coffee for Mama, shopped for groceries and breakfast at the local market and spent the rest of the day with high-quality family time. Making memories.
During these 12 hours, I forgot all the rest. And realized one thing: I’m a lucky guy. I’ve got a great family. We’re all healthy. I’ve got a satisfying 9–5 with decent pay and superb flexibility so I can work on side projects.
Yes, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to (who has?) and building out ideas takes me 5x longer these days. Still, this is how I want to spend my time.
Sometimes, the ideal week just doesn’t work out. Life will always throw curveballs at you. Some small, some bigger. I follow these three principles to make it through:
So even if you’re struggling for a few days (or weeks!), get up at 5.30 a.m. again. Do your work. Follow the plan. During such weeks, I always have this quote top of mind:
It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.
Rocky Balboa
I’m thrilled to get back into the flow again. To finally finish the first article (+ video!) of the “How to build a modern blog” series.
Thanks for reading and keep building.