The Time Is Now
Read on kevferrell.com
Welcome to REWIRE | REBOOT, a weekly newsletter where I share reflections from my ongoing personal growth journey and provide tested ideas, frameworks, tools and practices to help you create the life you want.
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In this issue:
- Rewire - What Happens Next
- Reboot - Start With Something
- One Action - Something Over Nothing
- Recommended - This Is Water
Rewire - Idea I'm Exploring
What Happens Next
On the way to the baseball diamond recently, I asked my son a question.
“When is your time to shine?”
He paused and asked what I meant.
So I asked it another way.
“When is your next opportunity to do something spectacular?”
He answered with a question.
“Now?”
Exactly.
He said it was just a guess, but it was the right answer.
Because the answer is always now.
Not later.
Not once the conditions are perfect.
Not when you feel ready.
Not when you get another chance to rewrite what already happened.
Now.
Whatever just happened is done. And it can’t be undone.
Whatever you say you’re going to do in the future is just words.
What you do right now is what counts.
I put it in a sports context for him.
Say you're having a bad game on the diamond. You strike out a couple of times. Or you miss a play you should have made
That happened.
You can sit there frustrated, replaying it in your mind, and carry it into the next inning.
You can drift into the future and imagine another game where everything goes perfectly.
Or you can focus on the next play.
The next pitch.
The next swing.
The next chance to contribute.
You put the last one behind you and try to make the next one spectacular.
This is what I want my son to understand in sports, but really in life.
"Your next opportunity to do something amazing is always right now."
You always have an opportunity to respond, to repair, to act. To make the situation better than it was a moment ago.
That is your time to shine.
It isn't just in the big speech, the perfect game, the career-defining moment, or the dramatic comeback everyone sees.
Most often, it is much smaller than that.
You yelled at your kid, your partner, or someone else who did not deserve it.
That happened. You can’t take it back.
Now you can defend it, avoid it, rationalize it. Or you can repair it.
You had a rough day at work. A meeting went poorly. Someone gave you feedback you did not want to hear.
You can ruminate, blame, spiral, Or learn from it and decide what you do next.
Someone insulted you, disappointed you, or treated you unfairly.
You can react and make the situation worse. Or you can respond with kindness in a way that makes it better.
Your next opportunity to do something good, right, useful, brave, kind, disciplined, or generous is almost always directly in front of you.
The question is whether you are paying attention.
Your time to shine is not someday.
It is the next thing you choose.
You do not need to wait for your moment.
You are already in it.
Reboot - Health & Longevity
Start With Something
The same idea applies to your health.
When is your next opportunity to do something good for your body and mind?
Right now.
You can decide to move your body today.
Make the better food choice.
Get to bed a little earlier.
Stop doomscrolling and use that time for something that gives you energy instead of taking it away.
A walk.
Reading a book.
Having a live conversation.
Disconnect from technology to reconnect with the present.
None of it has to be dramatic.
We tend to think change has to start with a full plan, a perfect routine, or a massive reset. But health compounds from much smaller decisions made consistently.
Any small step you choose right now is better than nothing.
Ten minutes is better than zero.
A short walk is better than staying seated.
A few bodyweight movements are better than another day of doing nothing.
One earlier night is better than another spent pretending fatigue is normal.
The upside is often largest when you are moving from nothing to something.
If you have not exercised in a long time, that doesn’t mean it is too late. It means the first small steps may matter more than you think.
Going from zero exercise to a generally recommended minimum of150 minutes per week (an average of just over 20 minutes per day) is a major health intervention that will change your life.
Studies show doing this results in a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality.
Another study found that even 90 minutes per week or 15 minutes per day lowers risk of all-cause mortality by 14% and increased average life expectancy over inactvity.
Low risk, high reward.
But it can sound like a lot if you are starting from zero.
So start smaller.
Start with ten minutes today.
Or try my exercise floor:
10 squats
10 push-ups
10 sit-ups.
Modify them if needed. Make them easier. Do the push-ups from your knees or against a counter. Sit to a chair for the squats. Keep the bar low enough that you can actually get over it.
The point is not to prove how hard you can go today.
The point is to build evidence.
That you still care. That you are not finished. That your next chapter is not dictated by your last one.
I know what it feels like to wonder whether your best days are behind you.
Age, injuries, the busyness of life. The assumption that certain things may no longer be available to you.
I am back to heavy deadlifting and deep squatting after a severe back injury and a full quad tendon repair.
I am back to heavy bench pressing after a pec reconstruction.
Things doctors told me I’d never be able to do again.
Those injuries could have become permanent lines in the story.
But I kept looking forward. Slowly. Carefully. With patience.
With a willingness to rebuild from where I actually was, not where I wished I still was.
That is the work.
Not pretending the setback did not happen.
Not rushing the comeback.
Not proving anything to anyone else.
Just making the next right decision.
Then making another one.
One Action
Something Over Nothing
Ask yourself:
What’s one small action I can take right now that makes something better than doing nothing?
Do it today.
Take the walk.
Send the message.
Make the apology.
Put the phone down
Make the next play
Then do it again tomorrow.
Let me know how it goes. Just reply to this email.
Inspirational Quote
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
– Seneca
Each day is its own complete opportunity to do something meaningful instead of waiting for some future version of your life.
Recommended
This Is Water
David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water (YouTube). An excerpt from his 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon College that is widely known for its focus on awareness, attention, and resisting the “default setting.”
Not because it is motivational in the traditional sense, but because it is about awareness. The ordinary moment. The choice inside the moment. The discipline of noticing what is happening and deciding who you want to be inside it.
That’s where the opportunity is.
That’s where you shine.
Or read the Transcript
Readers Corner
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Until next week,
Kevin
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