What we do isn’t truly who we are, but it’s a suitable stand-in for many practical purposes.
What we do is informed not just by our beliefs, biases, experiences, expectations, and other internal circuitry, it’s also informed by the structures we put into place around us.
These structures—our habits, routines, rituals, limitations—are exoskeletons that protect our soft bits and strengthen our weakest muscles. They have the potential to hoist us higher than we’d be capable of climbing, unaided, and they can allow us to take more punches than we otherwise might be up to enduring.
In this way, our habits are like intangible tools. They are resources that, if well-maintained and periodically sharpened, can improve upon our natural capabilities, just as a well-maintained and sharpened knife can improve upon those of the chef who wields it.
If you want to make more time for writing and the only time that is not currently claimed by other important tasks is in the morning before work, at around 5am, then it’s prudent—given that goal—to get up early enough that you can sit and write within that time-frame.
For many of us, though, a pre-5am waking hour isn’t a natural predisposition, and in fact might represent a substantial struggle.
Developing a habit of getting to sleep earlier could make such a thing more possible and more tolerable, though. As might committing to limiting your caffeine intake to a few cups per day, always consumed before 3pm.
Thus, something that was previously beyond our capabilities—at least on a regular, non-suffering basis—is brought closer to hand and becomes more attainable and survivable.
That increased likelihood of success is a result of choices we made that paved the path between us and what we hoped to achieve. Actions we performed that smoothed out some of the frictions we might otherwise have faced; frictions which would have reduced our likelihood of accomplishing what we wanted to accomplish.
Circling back to the idea that we are in some ways what we do, then, the question becomes:
What version of yourself would you like to be and what might you do to help make that happen?