My business is having a rough year. Gigs that I thought were sure things turned out not to be. Ad revenue is down (that’s not unique to me, that’s the state of ad rates on the web). Simultaneously, the services that I use to run my business (web hosting, email management, accounting) raised their rates.
My children are growing like weeds and developing like all toddlers do. Sometimes they cry about things that I can’t comprehend. Other times I’m exhausted by answering “why?” for the 100th time. That’s part of their development, but it can be an exhausting variable that’s out of my control.
One of my classes has been exceptionally challenging this week. It’s the end of their first quarter in high school and the rubber is about to meet the road for some of them who are just now realizing that they will be getting a grade on their report cards. Try as I, and my colleagues might, when that light bulb goes on for some of them is largely out of our control.
The one thing that I can control right now is my exercise and diet. Yesterday was a particularly trying day. What I wanted to do was have a glass of wine and watch the World Series at 8:30pm. Instead, I got on my indoor bike and did a power pyramids training session for an hour. At least at the end I felt like I had accomplished something for the day and I was totally in control of it. It was the saving grace of my day.
The moral of this story is, when nothing is going well, you can drink wine or you can exercise. Exercise is the better choice.