✌️ TREE 795: Make two plans

This week, TREE is written by my supremely talented colleague Lois Payne. Lois is The writer on my team in my day job. She’s also better than me at ping pong, which is super annoying. You’re stuck with me for the music selections. —Jeff

I don’t know about you, but when I plan, I’m usually at my most energised. Fired up about a new goal and super eager to get started on it. The problem is I optimistically assume I’ll feel a similar way when the time comes to act on those plans.

Reality has a way of beating that out of you.

Bad day at work, rough night’s sleep, illness, argument with a friend. You name it. Suddenly I’m feeling shit, and optimistic Lois’s plan for an intense one-hour workout looks about as appealing as a bowl of cold sick.

To get around this, I’ve started to make two plans. One for energised me, and one for low-energy me. I think: What’s the version of this I can do even when I don’t feel like it? And I keep paring back until I have something that feels easy.

If an hour of yoga that becomes five minutes of stretching, it does. No biggie. It’s all momentum. It’s all forward motion for the habit I’m trying to form.

When I get tempted to beat myself up for not making as much progress as normal, I remind myself progress isn't linear. Energy levels fluctuate. And I’m just a tiny speck of dust in an unimaginably vast universe that is totally indifferent to anything I do or do not do.

So… yeah. Two plans. It takes the pressure off.

I saw Remi Wolf introduce Soup at her Glastonbury set. (Thanks, BBC!) Since she’s released it, I’ve listened to it about a dozen times.