Month 1 - Growth
MARCH 1ST - RESTATE MY ASSUMPTIONS:
Habits create comfort and safety
Growth happens as a direct consequence of being challenged
First some updates.
I’m discovering more realistic goals to set for myself. For example: My goal of hitting the 48 contiguous within a year is possible, but I realized I don’t actually want to do that. Some quick maths: 48 states in 12 months would mean 4 states a month, or 1 state every week on average. Yeah, while I am physically capable of achieving that, it doesn’t leave me a lot of time to create memories. Maybe at some point in the future I will speedrun the 48 contiguous, but for now that will have to wait.
I also haven’t left PA yet because I am waiting for my full vaccination. Being vaccinated should make traveling between states less stressful on myself as well as on those states by being compliant with CDC guidlines.
I am scared and uncomfortable. And that’s a good thing. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. That’s what I believe. But it’s one thing to say it, and another to be pedaling ~10 miles mostly uphill into a headwind. On days like that I think, “Why did I do this to myself, surely there is an easier way to do this”. And of course there is. There is always an easier way. I’ve been living that easier way my whole life. That’s actually what Im trying to avoid. I did this to myself because it’s hard. Through out my life I’ve always made efforts to choose the new experiences. To walk the long way around. To live the life others reject. Thankfully it’s not all hard all the time. Once you get to the top of the hill, you get to ride downhill all the way back. And that was fun.
“Nothing truly great ever came from within a comfort zone.”