April 17th, 2024 – Every top becomes a new bottom 

A particular aspect of human psychology is fascinating to me: our ability to raise the bar for ourselves as we improve, and most of the times we cannot even appreciate our improvement.

For example:

I used to be very inconsistent. I would try to stick to 5 habits and after 10 days, it was almost impossible for me to keep at least 2 or 3 on a daily basis. 

If I managed to do at least 4, it would feel so good to me, a real victory! The rare days that I did all 5 habits would be considered such a successful day.

But then I started to get more committed to myself and my own word. Doing what I said I would stopped being a big thing and became the normal. 

So right now, I’m keeping track of 10 habits (read, meditate, pray, stretch, deep work, writing, study German, training, save money, take creatine) and I have been very consistent with them. 

So now, when I have a 9/10 day, it feels like a failure, what would be a reason for celebration just 3 months ago, is making me feel bad about myself.

The maximum became the minimum.

Every top becomes a new bottom.

That’s when I need to step back and remind myself of this, that the João from just a little while ago would be thrilled to be like this, and it’s definitely not a defeat on a 9/10 day. 

The one that I failed today was my deep work. I didn’t manage to wake up as early as yesterday because I was at my job until 9:30 PM and then had a late meeting with a client after, and I just couldn’t sleep early to wake up early with energy. 

And then the day just didn’t start right today, was pretty packed with my job obligations and other stuff. I still did some things for my clients and projects but didn’t manage to do what I consider focused and deep work.

But yeah, this is completely okay. I need to think that I still won the day.

I hope that I will get to sleep early today and tomorrow will be another opportunity to have a 10 out of 10 day!

See you guys!