Day 546 Record Keeping (67)
Day 515 Fixed Meditation
Day 461 Bodyweight Exercise (5 rounds, bodyweight tabata - 62)
Day 388 Writing (60)
Day 561 Eating (71)
Bad sleep, bad wakeup. Feeling good. Changed up my schedule again so that I did writing first, then exercises, then the rest of it. I have some nervous energy in my system from writing anyways. Also started incorporating tabatas. Ideally I’d like to do a pushing exercise, a pulling exercise, and core exercises to my routine. I think that would be a really solid routine to get good progress - and I’d consider mastery of that sequence throughout the week as a solid shelf to rest my practice.

Theorizing on Springiness in Mastery Cycling
Yesterday I talked about the extremes of depletion and vortex forces. I was thinking - is there any way to capitalize on this?

After starting a new routine where I’m pushing a habit towards mastery I get depleted, stressed, and depressed. After about a week I get a burst of energy and want to do a lot (vortex forces). There is definitely a feeling of springiness, where the equilibrium of the system reacts to a new endurance load. It makes sense that this takes time, especially since in my theory, endurance is willpower across time.

So - When vortex forces kick in, is it possible to use that subtlety in the process to do more?

My initial reaction is to say no (though I think it’s important to mull it over). Doing more work isn’t the point, it’s doing more work over time that reaps the greatest rewards. My thoughts are that cultivating a sense of satisfaction - knowing that I’m done completely with the day might be more effective to stave off that feeling of needing to do more.

As Lydia said today, I’m the type of person who will get into a groove, then get depressed because I’m not doing enough. I might as well be working even though I’m not - and the end point in my mind just doesn’t end. She heavily suggests doing something - a relaxation routine, or a reward - to signify a relaxation point.

But it brings up other issues - since I haven’t yet meticulously recorded a mastery cycle, at what point is right to start doing more? My hunch is that it’s never going to get to that point. There’s going to be less energy at first, then more, and then it’s going to level out. There isn’t a time to do more, per se, but there is a time to switch habits to work on, or continue on another growth cycle, once a shelf - where a habit can safely rest - is reached.

For example, I haphazardly started bodyweight exercises long ago. At some point doing 2 pushups a day transitioned to doing two typewriter pushups - and that’s solid. I’m currently working on going from 50 words of anything to a bit of work related writing tasks - and that’s a hard transition.

My hunch is that during this period automaticity goes down because you’ve essentially shifted what constitutes completion of a habit - and often enough you’re also switching the order of your daily regimentation. Completion of the growth cycle is marked when the SRHI scores stop dipping and go back up.

I really want to start focusing on these subtleties because I don’t believe anyone else is talking about them, and I believe it’s one of the keys to successful self mastery.