I did a rough calculation of how I spend my time and I found out a few things.
I sleep about 6-7 hours a day. I am at work for about 40 hours a week… and sometimes I spend another 6 hours thinking about work. For 45 minutes a day I am actually eating but I invest another 3 hours thinking about food. Cooking a great meal can take over an hour, but I can finish eating in about 8 minutes. I spend about 10 hours a week in traffic and sometimes 5 hours of that time is spent hating every minute of it. I usually watch TV for about 6 hours a week, not bad. But then I spend about 6 to 8 hours a day in front of a computer screen – at home and at work. I exercise for around 80 minutes a day – workout + walking… and then I sit nearly every other minute of the day (roughly 13.5 hours…).
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I like to think that my brain is a lean-mean super-thinking machine. Nope. My brain is 4 pounds of LAZY.
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I like to think I live my life on my own terms. In reality, nope. I don’t.
What I learned from my life-analysis is that while I like to think I am an original, most days I just copy what I did yesterday. It’s like my brain is happiest when today is just a photocopy of what happened most other days. And since I’m being honest, I like to think that my brain is a lean-mean super-thinking machine. Nope. My brain is 4 pounds of LAZY.
Today’s Potterism reminds us that sometimes the right decision is to break out of the lazy-brain mode. We will draw our inspiration from a badass spell-caster, Hermoine Granger:
“It’s sort of exciting, isn’t it? Breaking the rules.” Hermione
“Who are you and what have you done with Hermoine Granger?” Ron Weasley
Task
Your task today is to channel your inner Hermoine. Find a rule and break it. I don’t suggest anything illegal or dangerous. Instead, do something out of routine. Maybe stop reading this and go outside. Or unplug for a few hours. Or eat 5 cookies. Or listen to music that makes you dance… badly. Or watch stupid cat videos. Or wear shorts in -20 degree weather.
Whatever you can think of, know that your brain will complain. It may even tell you that life will be over if you do this thing… or it will tell you that you are not good enough to do it… or you are too old… or you don’t know what you are doing… or that others will laugh… or you will look stupid. Whatever it says, go ahead, break the rules because “it’s sort of exciting, isn’t it?”
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For a related article, see “6 Workouts for Your Inner “Yes-Butter.” I invite you to sign up for my blog by clicking “Follow Getting High on Recovery.” When you enter your email, you will get free access to the blog. I do not send spam or share your email with anyone.
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In the new year, I will be offering Geek Therapy using popular culture and superheroes. My specialties include addiction and mental health recovery, parent-teen relationships, emotions and communication skill-building, family counseling, trauma support and spirituality in counseling. If you would like to experiment with Geek Therapy and how it can benefit you, contact me at smswaby@icloud.com.
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