I installed a new alarm app last night to see if that would help with the getting up early. It worked. Melanie might not be all that happy with it (I may or may not have blinded her with my phone’s flash; I haven’t asked yet). So I wasn’t totally rushed on my way to work, and I managed to get coffee made and some protein in me, but I still just barely got to work on time. I then proceeded to get right to the project that was causing me problems yesterday. However….

Meditation

I remembered the success of taking a break for meditation yesterday and decided I could spare five minutes for now. Maybe I would find some additional time later, but at least I would have something. I ended up not finding that additional time, so I was glad to have gotten some small part of it done early in the day. However….

Exercise

I didn’t have time to do any walking and didn’t think about any pushups or other type of activity. And I didn’t have my usual lunch today. Instead, I went home so I could make a rescheduled appointment, which meant that the entire afternoon and evening didn’t go as it usually does. What I’m trying to say here is that I failed to get any exercise done. I could do it right now, but it’s basically bed time and that would be beneficial for my sleep. Also, I’m tired. So, I’m going to have to call this one a failure. Not just a half failure or almost failure, a real one. Like with many failures, however, I get to try again tomorrow. That’s the not giving up part.

Gratitude

1. I’m grateful for the toll road. It sometimes saves me just a few minutes; it sometimes saves me large fractions of hours; occasionally it’s actually not any faster and it feels like a waste of money. It serves as a frequent reminder to me that it is almost always better to trade money for time when you can.
2. I’m grateful for the ability to take time off to make Melanie’s appointments. That’s probably not as common as it should be, and I appreciate that I have some flexibility.
3. I’m grateful for

Kindness

Just to update you on yesterday’s cliff hanger of kindness, I decided to leave a positive review for an app I’ve been using for a while. I’ll admit that it didn’t feel quite as good as the in person kindnesses or even the electronic ones that were too a specific person. Maybe corporations really aren’t people. Or maybe I shouldn’t expect praise for my simple act of good will. Or maybe both.

Today, I’m going to count two small gestures. I gave a homeless guy some change I had in the car. I normally wouldn’t even mention this because it was such a small thing and a small amount of money. But I told him at first, apologetically, that I didn’t have any money, which I thought was true. Then, I took a moment to look around the car and found a small handful of coins, not enough to make much impact on his life I imagine. But maybe the act of giving did.

Something positive

I also complimented a nurse on her bracelet, which was unusual and looked meaningful. Turns out, she got it on her honeymoon. She seemed to appreciate my mentioning it, and I suspect it renewed some pleasant memories (although, her honeymoon could have been a disaster; she didn’t really say.)

I’m putting this in the something positive category because it felt nice to see her smile in the middle of her routine, which was quite busy. Probably I’m just bragging because I feel like I have good bedside manner. Although, I was neither the patient nor the medical professional in this case.

So, seventeen days to my first failure. If I can keep that up, I should be able to make it through the rest of the challenge without failing again. I won’t count on that necessarily, but it’s nice to think about. Have a good Friday.