Tony Stark Policci woke at 4 am anxious about an IRS request, but forced himself outside and rode his bike for 20-25 minutes anyway. He argues that movement comes before motivation, and that controlling your own actions is the only thing you can actually do when everything feels overwhelming.
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Okay, good morning. So this morning I woke up in a bit of a pity party. 4 o'clock in the morning, woke up, didn't want to get up, wasn't rested, and just plagued with all the worries and the troubles in my mind. Had some— like, there are times when it feels like it's just a nonstop cacophony of annoying things to deal with, right? Mysteries to solve. Like, I got, I got this letter from the IRS asking me for some documentation for a couple years ago. I go into my accounting program to look for it and it's not there. It's like, why is it not there? How can it not be there? And it, you know, sometimes I don't know about you guys, but for me sometimes it's Like, it's not the big things that knock the wind out of my sails. It's like the tiny little things, right? Like, okay, how much time am I going to have to invest to solve this problem that should be simple to solve and it's not simple to solve? But anyway, so this morning, you know, it is like 6 AM now. Like, I did not want to get up and do anything. So I hemmed and hawed around for about 5, 6 minutes. I did walk outside and go stand in and take in the morning sunlight, but it just like, that wasn't enough, you know. So I went to the garage to grab my bike, and then I didn't want to go on my bike. I can just get on the bike and go. So I've completed a 20-minute you know, intense bike ride now. And, you know, it's a beautiful morning out. I mean, there's lots of people out. There's people walking, walking their dogs, running, jogging, exercising. And, you know, right now it's going to get really hot today because it's June in Arizona. It'll be 110 today at least. But this morning is nice. So, like, in spite of how low motivation I had this morning— how little motivation, how low motivation— and all the emotion that was going on, like, the important thing is to get up and push myself to do something. So, you know, for me, motivation doesn't come before movement. Like, movement is what causes motivation most of the time for me. So I've talked in these videos before about not negotiating with yourself, you know, just getting up and doing things. And, you know, I realized that I did some negotiating with myself this morning, and I still managed to to get up and get on the bike and go start moving. And you know, now 25 whatever minutes later that it is, I feel a lot better, right? I got movement in my body. So you know, I'm reminded of how blessed I am, all the great things that I have going on in my life, and that this too shall pass. Right now there's a lot of crazy things going on in the world. It's worrisome. And I think that's weighing on my conscience too. But I can't control those things. What can I control? Me. I can control how I show up, what I do, how I take care of myself. And that's what I'm going to do today. So whatever you're going through, whatever you're, you know, addressing or having to endure, I just encourage you to keep stepping into it, keep finding the strength, to put one foot in front of the other, find the joy in your life and the little things. And man, if something small derails you, tomorrow's a new day, right? The Bible says his mercies are renewed every morning, and you know, that's— you don't have to wait till morning. It can be renewed every moment, but sometimes Morning is a real blessing. It's a fresh start. So I'm gonna hop back on the bike and do a little bit more riding and then go do the best I can to make the most of this day. Thanks for watching.
