Your morning self

One trick that has helped me as I work towards becoming a daily runner:

Don't let your morning self decide whether to go running.  The evening self gets to decide.

If you accept the somewhat artificial construct that there is not one of you but multiple, competing yous duking it out inside your head, battling for control, it is easier to change habits.

My morning self is usually tired, and stiff, and doesn't want to run.  If I were deciding in the moment whether to go running or not, I rarely would.

Instead, I decide the night before.

Then, in the morning, when my morning self objects, I treat that morning self like a junior staffer at a meeting of senior execs: "Sorry Morning Self, but you don't get a vote.  We recognize that you don't feel like it, but the decision from the CEO has already been made. Lace up!"

Bonus hint: going to sleep in your running shorts and tee-shirt makes it even easier.

When sites ask for your phone number

Some websites, when you register, ask for your phone number, and make it a required field.  Some of them are smart enough to disallow 111-222-3333.

I enter: 718-479-7990, the number to the Rejection Line.  If you haven't heard of it before, give it a ring when you need a laugh. And keep the number handy for those forms.  Particularly handy when buying tickets for some event, to avoid telemarketing calls in the future.

Who needs to be able to write?

I was chatting with a home inspector recently. He charges $400 per inspection, and generally fits in two per day, sometimes three. He is so busy that he doesn't bother advertising: if he does advertise, he gets more calls that he can handle.

Not a bad living for a living that doesn't require a college degree, any significant capital investment, or following a boss's orders.  If he can average two inspections per day, that is $4,000 per week, or $200,000 per year. Assuming some slow periods throughout the year, and a home inspector could at least be making $100-150K.

He'd like to hire some people and send them out on inspections. But the biggest hurdle is: he can't find people who can write. After each inspection, he produces an inspection report. And almost every candidate he interviews can't write a page that isn't filled with spelling and grammatical errors.

Assorted links

1. From the NYT: Focus on fitness, not fatness:

"If people want to be healthier and prolong their life span, all they really need to do is go for a walk."