Seth Godin Writes a Great Daily Blog. If you dont read it, you should check it out.

Today he wrote a short but great article - I Don’t Feel Like It …

What’s it?

Why do you need to feel like something in order to do the work? They call it work because it’s difficult, not because it’s something you need to feel like.

Very few people wake up in the morning and feel like taking big risks or feel like digging deep for something that has eluded them. People don’t usually feel like pushing themselves harder than they’ve pushed before or having conversations that might be uncomfortable.

Of course, your feelings are irrelevant to whether or not the market expects great work. Do the work. Ignore the feelings part and the work will follow.

One of my favorite authors and speakers, Matthew Kelly, always says that our culture teaches us to judge an activity by how we feel when we start it.  As a result we usually end up avoiding doing the things we know will have the biggest impact on our lives because we rarely “feel like” doing them.

We rarely feel like it because its difficult.  Self discipline is not fun, its not sexy.  Naturally those things we dont feel like doing usually provide the most satisfaction and the greatest rewards once we actually take initiative and actually “do it.”

Challenge Yourself Today.

Our Snow Day in 2 Minutes - February 23, 2010

A collage I made from the Valentines Day card that Kristin gave me. Turned out pretty nicely if I do say so myself.  It was my favorite Valentines Day card of all time.

Today is the 47th day of 2010 and its also Day 39 of my first 40 day challenges of the New Year.  If you remember my initial challenge of this year was to become an early riser in order to establish a consistent routine for my mornings.  That meant/means rolling out of bed by 5am to start my day.  While I have not done that every single day in 2010 (hence the difference between my day 39 and the 47th day of the year) I’ve been awful close.

The reason that I know today is Day 39 is that one of the first things in my morning routine is that I read a chapter of The Purpose Driven Life.  Today was day 39.  Tomorrow is day 40 and then I will have completed that journey.  Coincidentally tomorrow is also Ash Wednesday and the start of a new 40 day journey.  Thus, tomorrow I turn over a new leaf and start a new set of personal challenges.

Im finding this to be much more effective than any resolution or goal setting practice that Ive ever enacted.  I’m focused on one or two things that will have a profound effect on my habits and lifestyle long term.

To this point I have turned the early morning routine into a steady ritual, one that I don’t have any desire or intention of breaking.  I’ve been too productive for this first seven weeks of the year to ever go back.  The results have been quite amazing.

Tomorrow we start anew.  As a result, I will go through the entire Lenten season without eating sweets as I do every year.  I’m also committed to journaling every day for the next 40 days.  And finally, I will work toward emerging from my office by 6pm every night.

That is going to be the toughest challenge.  I often find myself sitting at the computer doing things that are relatively unimportant until late into the evening.  I will work on getting everything that needs to be done for the business day completed by 6 so I can spend more quality time doing other important things.

Id strongly suggest trying out this personal challenge technique.  Focus on one or two things that you know would have a profound effect on your life.  Not 5 or 6.  One or two promises that you can keep and hold yourself accountable.  Think about it.  If you were to focus on one or two things in 40 day cycles, that is 9 new productive and healthy habits you could turn into routines and then into rituals.  It will make a difference - I promise.

I thought it would be fun at the year to look back at a chronological summary of what went on during each month while it actually happened.  Similar to keeping a detailed event journal, but a lot less effort.

I’ve decided that I will save what I think are the most relevant Facebook and Twitter status updates and post them in a single post at the end of each month.  Its kind of a Cliff’s notes version of the month from start to finish.  Eventually, it will become the electronic summary of the year as a whole.  This should be fun.

So here is the January edition - a little late because I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with it.  Click on the VCard on the right hand side of this site to join my networks.

This is not a story of mine.  It may not even be attributed to the correct author here, I don’t know for sure.  I do know this.  I have read this story a handful of times and each time I read it, I am struck by the simplicity of it but also the essential lesson to be learned.  Accordingly, this is the time of the year where most people have either abandoned their resolutions or promises for the new year or are struggling to sustain them (myself included).  What this story and the greater principles of life tell us is that like the Chinese Bamboo tree, growth is more a by product of purpose than it is of instant gratification.

The Chinese Bamboo Tree
By Charlie Dexter

Zig Ziglar, the famous motivational speaker, once told the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree. It seems that this tree when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season doesn’t outwardly grow as much as an inch.

Then, after the second growing season, a season in which the farmer takes extra care to water, fertilize and care for the bamboo tree, the tree still hasn’t sprouted. So it goes as the sun rises and sets for four solid years. The farmer and his wife have nothing tangible to show for all of their labor trying to grow the tree.

Then, along comes year five. In the fifth year that Chinese bamboo tree seed finally sprouts and the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet in just one growing season! Or so it seems….

Did the little tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth? Or, was the little tree growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond?

The answer is, of course, obvious. Had the tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew.

Had the Chinese bamboo farmer dug up his little seed every year to see if it was growing, he would have stunted the tree’s growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely.The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly.

We live in a quick-fix society. We get frustrated if we have to wait more than 2 minutes for service or a stop light to change. We want instant solutions to every complex problem and every fractured relationship. In short - we want it all now!

Maybe its time to reflect on an old, old poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that is as true today as it was when he wrote it over 100 years ago:

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.”

How Funny is this? Okay first you have to understand that this guys is “reporting” on reporters from the view of a reporter. Follow me? Watch it a couple times and you’ll see. This made me laugh.

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo