Chris Pearlberg

We all await that day when we have finally moved away from home- we can eat ice cream for breakfast and stay up all night playing video games. There are no rules! This plan goes great and its fun until……suddenly we can’t function or get anything done.

This dilemma has hundreds of tiny examples in day to day life: not getting up early enough to get work done, keeping the clean laundry on the bed and eventually sleeping on it, not doing the dishes, not applying to that job….. all of these tasks are annoying and get in the way of our lives!

But what if by simply doing these tasks, as a routine, we find more time to do the things we want to do? It is easy to let things go and have them weigh on the brain for days, months, even years, and we know we should do it, but we continue to avoid. Every first step is the hardest in a process that never ends: exercising, eating right, writing a blog. But maybe it is through these structures that we find actual freedom and the ability to be creative.

Rules can be made by others, requiring us to do certain things. But rules can be even more useful and effective when we set them for ourselves. Rules are what make any game fun to play, someone not playing by the rules ruins the game for everyone. Why not take the same approach to everyday life? Be your fiercest competition. Be your own referee.

We don’t really know what the upper limit of our potential is. Maybe by taking a leap of faith and starting those projects that are on the back burner, you find a clearer mind and a more focused lifestyle. You may never look at ice cream the same way again.