5:30 AM
I wake up and meditate, workout with trainer at the gym, watch dailies from the set, write a scene for new musical before work, go into the office for full day, write another musical scene during lunch, go to Orangetheory Fitness, come back home to revise tv scene being shot next week, and then flip back to musical writing. At 10pm I was asked, 'you're not tired?' I paused for a second and thought about it. No. No, I'm actually not...which is weird. I should be...or I guess the expectation is that I should be tired.
I remember a Wayne Dyer book talking about expectations. He said expectations set our mood and energy level. So if working 8 hours is considered a full day, then if I work 10 hrs my mind says 'whew, I've worked longer than usual, ergo I must be tired.' If I work 12 or 14 hours then I should be exhausted. But there have been weeks when I've done nothing and felt dead...and other weeks -like this one- where it's 16-18 hour day and it's fine.
On the 2008 Obama campaign, the schedule was literally 16-18 hours, 7 days a week. After getting over the initial shock, you just had to do it. No complaining. And people did. People of all ages and backgrounds just hunkered down and found that they had all this energy when they shifted expectations. A truck driver, a meter reader, a Harvard english major, a botanist from Brown University, a college baseball player who blew out his knee and lost his chance as a pro athlete. People just worked. Of course, if you're dealing with an illness or injury there are exceptions, but I'm amazed at the energy we have when we let go of how we think we're supposed to feel.
I wake up and meditate, workout with trainer at the gym, watch dailies from the set, write a scene for new musical before work, go into the office for full day, write another musical scene during lunch, go to Orangetheory Fitness, come back home to revise tv scene being shot next week, and then flip back to musical writing. At 10pm I was asked, 'you're not tired?' I paused for a second and thought about it. No. No, I'm actually not...which is weird. I should be...or I guess the expectation is that I should be tired.
I remember a Wayne Dyer book talking about expectations. He said expectations set our mood and energy level. So if working 8 hours is considered a full day, then if I work 10 hrs my mind says 'whew, I've worked longer than usual, ergo I must be tired.' If I work 12 or 14 hours then I should be exhausted. But there have been weeks when I've done nothing and felt dead...and other weeks -like this one- where it's 16-18 hour day and it's fine.
On the 2008 Obama campaign, the schedule was literally 16-18 hours, 7 days a week. After getting over the initial shock, you just had to do it. No complaining. And people did. People of all ages and backgrounds just hunkered down and found that they had all this energy when they shifted expectations. A truck driver, a meter reader, a Harvard english major, a botanist from Brown University, a college baseball player who blew out his knee and lost his chance as a pro athlete. People just worked. Of course, if you're dealing with an illness or injury there are exceptions, but I'm amazed at the energy we have when we let go of how we think we're supposed to feel.
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