Gravitating to the baseline

I’ve started ‘journaling’ recently, every morning, taking note of my mood and sleep and motivation patterns.

What’s interesting is that nearly every day, I’m just about average. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m nearly always at a 3 for just about every metric.

Sure, I’m somewhat happier on the weekends and I often get more sleep. But my general motivation to do things is mostly about the same.

What should have been obvious to me prior to doing this, is that, well, of course it is. Almost everything gravitates to a baseline.

It’s rare that we are less or more driven than we usually are. And it’s few and far between when we’re jubilantly(!) ecstatic, or when we get a remarkably great(!) night’s sleep.

The way to improve these patterns, then, is not to enhance the frequency of the outliers. (That’s unsustainable by definition.)

The way to sleep better or to improve your mood or to feel more motivated is to take small proactive steps to improve them gradually. To reset your habits, so that little by little, drip by drip, you wake up to a better baseline, and gravitate, naturally, to a more active mode of being in the world.