Day Zero

Write one sentence. Just one. That’s all it takes to start.

Today is day 10 of post-op life. And day I-don’t-even-know since I left my miserable job. To say my life has been turned on it’s head would be a vast understatement. To say I’m handling it with poise and grace would be an overstatement. But tonight, amidst that disarray that is currently my life, something brought a little clarity. 

A friend had shared a quote on Facebook that he had found particularly sage advice. It was instructions on how to, for all intents and purposes, “live your best life”. The writer offered 4 rules on how to succeed on your own terms. The number one rule was impossibly simple. “No zero days”. He said that a zero day is a day when you do nothing to make your dreams or your aspirations a reality. The most important part of this, however, is that it doesn’t matter how small. “Write one sentence. One push-up. Read one page of that chapter. One. Because one is a non zero”.

After reading it, I started talking to the friend who had shared the quote. He said it had completely changed his outlook. Maybe for a day, maybe for a week, maybe for a long period of time, but regardless it had a profound impact on him in the moment. Truth be told, this couldn’t have come at a better time. As I fight hard to avoid slipping into the negativity and frustration of being unable to move and operate as myself, I find I am drifting closer and closer to feeling like I want to do something great. 

But great is overwhelming.

I have wanted to write for a long time, I just wasn’t quite sure what that would look like. But this No Zero Days idea shed an interesting light on what it means to do something. Forget the great.

The biggest things we do in life always start out with the smallest steps. No one wakes up one day, rolls out of bed, throws in a kcup and changes the world. But I can also promise you that no one wakes up, wanders through life aimlessly, teetering on the edge of self pity, and changes the world. It takes baby steps and a lot of Non Zero Days strung together to make even the smallest dreams a reality. So what does this all mean, aside from the fact that my body has taken a back seat and as a result my mind is on overdrive? It means that today starts a new day and a new chapter in this unwritten story. 

This is my challenge to myself: 365 non zero days. One year of living with intent and taking what life throws my way and choosing to make it meaningful. Taking the bad with the good and finding happiness even in the smallest things. No more waiting for an opportunity or a goal to “work out”. After all, every day is another chance to get one step closer to the dream. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering. It just has to be something.

Along the way I’ll share the little victories and the collosal failures. The lessons I’ve learned and continue to learn. The ups and the downs, the for betters and for worses (I’m writing aren’t I? Let’s let the grammar slide). This isn’t a running blog or a post eating disorder blog or a travel blog. It’s all of them because they are all of me and all of so many other people. It may be dull or uninteresting but if I can share even a few pieces of my life that help one other person, that right there is a non zero day in and of itself. I mean hey, that’s the point of all this, isn’t it?

365 days, 1 big project: Day 0.

My friend told me tonight: “write one sentence”. Well, I did. And this is where it ended up. It is 11:59 pm. No Zero Days.