Breaking out of a funk

For those of you who read this everyday, first, thank you! And second, you've probably noticed that I've been in a bit of a funk.

Sometimes, you need to give yourself some time to wallow, but you need to break out of that before wallowing becomes a habit. I was getting to the point where it was pretty obvious that if I didn't make a switch, I'd start to spiral in the wrong direction.

I think we all know what we have to do when we're not feeling ourselves: we have to shake ourselves up. That is easier said than done, especially because one shake doesn't do all that much.

You don't make your relationship better by going on a single date, you don't make your company better by making one more call, and you don't get yourself to see the world differently because you tried a different toothpaste.

I need to do a series of things to get myself back to me. Here's my plan:

First, I exercised again. I had taken off most of the past two weeks due to an ankle sprain, book fair eating my life, and work. My ankle isn't all the way good yet – I tried to row and ski, but I couldn't do either of those things; instead, I just did a lot of push-ups and ring rows. Enough that I was sore, and I stopped just short of where I was going to start failing.

When I'm pushing myself in a real workout, I have no issue with failure. But when I'm trying to center myself, there's no reason to do something that's going to get me angry at myself, which is what failing does.

Second, I took a very cold shower.

I've written a few times about how much better I feel after I've had a freezing cold shower. Not the type where I'd start off warm and move down: the full-on cold blast, right out of the gate.

Cold showers shock you into having a lot more energy. In addition, I have eczema, and despite trying every prescription steroid cream on the market, cold showers heal it faster than anything else. They also help with the aches and pains – my sprained ankle feels better after being in the freezing cold, too.

Third, I threw out an old Finder hat. I'm not pissed off at Finder, but I don't really need to walk around with a reminder of that company, or give them free advertising. So it's in the garbage now (for those of you at Finder, I still have a t-shirt or two that I use for painting).

Fourth, I did the stuff I could do for my business and for my wife's where I could get immediate results: I called up our local paper about advertising there, and I talked to some online peeps about advertising for Hopara clients. Little things, but they make a big difference in feeling like I accomplished something.

Fifth, I did a few follow-ups that I'd been dreading. Not because they are hard, but because I needed to write things that would restart momentum in a few areas, and I knew that I'd only get one shot at it. Still, it feels better to get it done, and it's obviously the biggest thing I did to help break out of my funk, because it's the thing that was causing part of it.

And sixth, I got a little ahead on this blog again.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading!