Today is a placeholder type of day. I’ve got two separate dream pieces I’ve started after some unexpectedly intense dreams last night. One involving a cafe robbery sequence and the other involving a home invasion. Neither were very conducive to sound sleep.

So— I thought I’d reflect on the best parts of the day. I got to play soccer with some of my elementary students at lunch. I can look out from the school windows to see misty mountains looming over the school. They make me think of the Pacific Northwest, but the bevy of butterflies, geckos, and giant insects make me consider that I really am in a subtropical area.

When I walk past students in the hall— I can hear them whisper my name with their excited giggles. That’s if they don’t rush right up to me to say “Hello!” before standing stock still and then running off again.

Tomorrow is another new school— it’ll be the fourth one I’ve been to so far. I have three others that I’ll eventually visit. It’s been interesting to see the formality and teaching styles differ between the schools. They’ve all been uniformly pleasant and I can’t say there’s been a bad moment. The closest would be the long sections of time I’m sequestered in the staff room— reading over my Japanese textbook and scribbling barely legible notes.

I feel more contemplative than I did before I moved halfway across the world. Part of that is the free time I have. Not having a huge social group yet means times where I’d be at a restaurant, bar, soccer game, movie, etc, I’m at home or walking around town.

It gives me time to reflect on how I’ve gotten here. It’s made me look at my core habits— and how some of the ones that look the hardest are the ones that have the easiest entries.

I ride my exercise bike about five days a week. I consider it to be my “lazy” way to get fit. I watch movies while I ride. Or I call a friend. Or I’m reading a book or writing one of my 365 pieces. And of course, sometimes I am just riding. But more often than not I’m keeping my legs moving while involving my brain in something else. It’s infinitely harder for me to go to the gym. Here or back in the states. The social nature of it made me uncomfortable— I’ve never been big into lifting or know most of the machines, so the barrier of entry seemed tall. Whereas having an exercise bike and free weights at my own apartment? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

The same goes for writing. I used to have stricter methods or rules I had for myself. But now? The only thing that matters is that I complete one single sentence and post it. That’s it. Usually, I’m doing it right from my phone. I’ll have productive flurries— but most of the time I’m just spitballing “why’s” and pretty descriptions. If you do it enough days in a row— with a low entry bar (I’m talking so low you could roll over the bar) it becomes a regular habit.

I no longer torture myself on whether or not I’m a writer. Instead, I just write what I want to and see how that shakes out.

So, before I go. I ask you— what is something you want to do but keep procrastinating? How can you lower the entry level?

As I once scrawled on a onesie for my soon-to-be born godson and shamelessly stole from a greater mind than myself: “You have to be brave before you can be good.” - Brian K. Vaughn.