Well, another week down, where does the time go? Hard to say, but this week let’s talk about something I’ve been trying to implement again for the past two weeks now.

There’s a saying by Tony Robbins which we can learn a lesson from, the line goes like this:

“People know what to do, but are people doing want they know?”

Haha… damn isn’t that the truth of it; what I love about his quotes is that they are so forthcoming when it comes to their message, it’s so that you gain its meaning the moment it is uttered. Now, many people think that is bad or low effort because it seems simplistic. To me, I think that is why it is genius. To be able to boil down a concept into a handful of words is an art worthy of respect. It’s why so much of eastern philosophy uses shorthand phrases as a way of teaching important life lessons. The other bonus is they’re easier to remember when compared with essays.

Okay, back to the actual lesson for today, as I mentioned above, you probably already know what the phrase means but let’s unpack it anyway. May as well, you’re already here. I don’t believe that people are idiots, and Tony must think the same way as well because he is indicating to us that the people of the world, deep down, truly know what they need to do to improve their lives. The issue is that they don’t actually do anything about it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we are all guilty of this wrongdoing but that doesn’t mean we get to let ourselves or others off the hook. How many times have you heard someone say, “I need to stop XXXX” (insert almost any negative habit or behaviour), but then they continue as if they had never said those words?

Quick sidenote, this phrase does make me think, if everyone knows what they should be doing, but aren’t. That means, even if you trying to do something, you’re way ahead of everybody else.

So, what thing have I known I should be doing but haven’t been. Well, that would be getting back my early morning routine. Maybe I’ve talked about this before, stop me if I have, oh wait you can’t, this is written text, sucked in. Yeah so, a while back I had this routine where I would wake up in the morning around about 4:30am, go for a walk immediately upon waking up, then meditate, do my mindfulness exercises, learn some French and then exercise. Usually, I would still have 30 minutes of free time before I needed to get ready for work.

Fast forward and all of that went to shit. I mean I still do those things but instead of it being in the morning before work, I have to do it after work and if something like an event comes up, it can throw my routine into disaster. I could blame COVID-19 and you know most people would let me get away with it, but the most important person who can’t accept that, is me.

Therefore, over the past two weeks I have been going to bed earlier and in turn waking up earlier. I’ve gotten my wake up time from 7:50am to 6:00am. Yes, I still have some ways to go and I haven’t been able to fully incorporate my entire routine into the morning yet, but I’m doing it.

Don’t get me wrong, this is something that has been plaguing my mind for quite a while now. But I just came to the conclusion I couldn’t allow it anymore, I had to do what I know I should be doing. In addition, there are other fronts in my life where I have allowed rot to grow. And I will tackle them, but for now I’m going to stick to one at a time. But that doesn’t mean I can get complacent once I get my morning routine down, it needs to be on to the next issue right after.

The homework for this week, I haven’t given you any for a while, but too bad, pop quiz. What thing in your life are you not doing but know you should be? And then what are you going to do about?

(See what I did there, the first question was about the knowing but the second was about the doing, sometimes I’m taken back by my own brilliant wordplay)

To leave you this week, here is another quote I think from Stephen Covey, will need to consult my quote book for confirmation:

“To know and to do nothing, is really not to know in the first place”

See ya later my Hedites, stay frosty for more, and best of luck with your answers to the homework questions. If you feel comfortable, post them in the comments and start a dialogue.