Day One, Not One Day

Day One, Not One Day

I’ve been thinking about a mindset shift lately.

If I can commit to five years of being vegan, and nearly two decades at a job that was never supposed to be a two-decade job, then I already know something about myself:

I know how to commit.

The question isn’t whether I can stick with something.

The question is whether I’m willing to apply that same ability to other areas of my life.

That’s where day one comes in.

Not one day.

Day One, Not One Day

There are a lot of things we tell ourselves we’ll eventually do.

One day I’ll simplify my life.

One day I’ll start strength training consistently.

One day I’ll change the way I eat.

One day I’ll try something I’ve always been curious about.

One day I’ll...

And sometimes “one day” never comes.

I’ve started realizing that some things don’t require a grand plan. They require a first step.

Some decisions can literally go from thought to action within minutes or hours.

Not because you know exactly where they’re going to lead, but because you don’t.

That’s the point.

You have to actually try something to learn whether it works for you.

Sometimes the longer you wait, the more opportunities you give yourself to talk yourself out of it.

So I’m becoming more interested in day one.

Day one doesn’t mean I know where this is going.

It means I started.

Then Comes Day Two

But here’s the part I’ve been thinking about even more:

Day one isn’t the finish line.

You start on day one.

Then you observe.

You learn.

You adjust.

And then you apply what you learned on day two.

Then day three.

Then day four.

And so on.

That’s a much different mindset than believing you have to figure everything out before you begin.

Day one gives you a starting point. Day two gives you information.

Maybe the thing works exactly as you expected.

Maybe it works, but you need to make some adjustments.

Maybe it doesn’t work at all.

All three outcomes are useful.

That’s because the goal isn’t necessarily to get everything right on the first attempt.

The goal is to keep learning.

Start. Observe. Adjust. Apply. Repeat.

Applying It to Everything

I’m starting to apply this thinking to different parts of my life.

I’m adding touches of minimalism to my everyday life.

I’m committing to regular strength training.

I’m eating mostly whole, single foods from both plant and animal sources.

And yes, I’m giving coffee a fair chance.

More on that later.

But yes, I drink coffee.

I like it black. I prefer single-origin coffee or a good blend. I generally avoid flavored coffees, and I grind my own beans every day.

That’s about as far as I’m going with it here.

I may or may not have written a separate article about coffee by the time you’re reading this.

And honestly, that’s intentional.

Maybe I’ll become a coffee person.

Maybe I’ll decide it’s overrated and move on.

Maybe my preferences will change six months from now.

That’s okay.

I’m giving myself permission to experiment without needing to know the final answer today.

If there is a coffee article, you’ll know where I ended up at that point in the experiment.

And if there isn’t one?

Maybe the experiment didn’t lead anywhere worth writing about.

Either way, I learned something.

That’s the point.

Be Your Own Experiment

This might be the part of the mindset shift I like the most.

Be your own experiment.

We spend a lot of time accepting assumptions, conventional wisdom, and other people’s experiences as if they’re universal truths.

But they’re not.

Something can work incredibly well for one person and not work for another.

Something can have worked for somebody for 30 years and still not be the best way to do it.

That doesn’t mean those 30 years of experience are worthless.

Quite the opposite.

You can learn from someone who has spent decades doing something one way.

You can also learn from someone who figured out a better way after doing it for only a few months or years.

Then you take what you’ve learned and make it your own.

We sometimes treat five, ten, or thirty years of experience as the ultimate authority.

But experience and improvement aren’t necessarily the same thing.

You can have thirty years of experience.

Or you can have one year of experience repeated thirty times.

Those aren’t necessarily the same thing.

That’s why being willing to change your method matters.

If you only know one way to do something, one variable changing can completely throw you off.

But if you’ve learned how to adapt, changing circumstances become something you can work with instead of something that ruins your day, your week, or your plans.

Stop Asking “What If?”

I’ve also been catching myself with the endless “what if” questions.

What if this goes wrong?

What if I fail?

What if I don’t like it?

What if this doesn’t work?

Those are legitimate questions.

But eventually, thinking about the possibilities without doing anything becomes its own form of avoidance.

So I’ve started adding another question:

What if this goes well?

What if I actually like it?

What if I get better?

What if this becomes something I enjoy?

What if this changes something else in my life for the better?

The interesting thing is that both outcomes give you information.

If it goes wrong, you learn.

If it goes well, you learn.

If you try something and decide it’s not for you, you learned something.

If you try something and discover that you love it, you learned something.

You learn very little from repeatedly asking “what if?” and never doing anything.

Action creates data.

Let It Fly

And this is where I think the mindset gets really useful.

If something isn’t for you, let it fly.

Move on.

It doesn’t have to become a failure story.

You don’t have to force yourself to continue something just because you started it.

You don’t have to defend the decision to stop.

You tried it.

You collected some data.

You learned something about yourself.

That’s valuable.

Maybe you never think about it again.

That’s fine.

Or maybe someday the circumstances change.

Your priorities change.

The technology improves.

You learn something new.

Your situation is different.

And suddenly that thing you tried years ago makes more sense.

Now you have something you didn’t have before:

experience with it.

You can circle back.

That’s one of the underrated benefits of trying things.

You’re not necessarily making a permanent decision.

You’re creating a reference point.

The Data Matters

This is why I’m becoming less afraid of trying something and deciding it isn’t for me.

I’d rather have actual experience than an assumption.

I’d rather be able to say:

“I tried that. Here’s what I learned.”

Than:

“I wonder if that would work.”

There’s a huge difference.

One is information.

The other is speculation.

And sometimes the information tells you to keep going.

Sometimes it tells you to change direction.

Sometimes it tells you to walk away.

All three are progress.

The goal isn’t to make every experiment successful.

The goal is to keep learning.

Quietly Build Before You Announce

There’s another part of this shift I’m trying to embrace:

Lead by example, and don’t overshare what you’re doing or planning to do.

I’m not saying hide everything.

I’m saying give yourself room to experiment.

You don’t need to become the person who is constantly telling everyone:

“I’m trying to...”

“I’m about to...”

“I’m going to start...”

“I’m planning on...”

There is something different about simply doing the thing.

Let it get into motion.

Learn.

Adjust.

See whether it actually fits your life.

Then share a little.

The people who are genuinely interested will ask questions.

And over time, they can watch the results instead of listening to the intentions.

There’s a certain freedom in that.

You don’t have to defend an experiment you haven’t finished.

You don’t have to explain why you changed direction.

You don’t have to live up to an announcement you made six months ago.

You get to learn.

Commitment Doesn’t Mean Permanence

This might be the biggest distinction I’m learning.

Commitment doesn’t always mean committing to a permanent outcome.

Sometimes you’re simply committing to giving something a legitimate chance.

Try it.

Give it enough time to understand it.

Pay attention.

Adjust.

Then decide what comes next.

That’s very different from treating every decision like it has to define the rest of your life.

I’ve already proven that I can stay committed to something for a very long time.

Now I want to become better at deciding what deserves that commitment in the first place.

And sometimes the only way to figure that out is to start.

You Don’t Have to Try Everything

This mindset isn’t about becoming interested in everything.

It’s okay to not be interested in something.

It’s okay to try something and decide it’s not for you.

It’s okay to change your mind.

And it’s okay to let something go without turning it into a referendum on whether you succeeded or failed.

What I’m becoming less interested in is discouraging someone else from trying something simply because I don’t want to do it.

My experiment is mine.

Yours is yours.

I can learn from your experience.

You can learn from mine.

Neither one of us has to blindly adopt the other’s method.

We can take the information, test it against our own lives, and figure out what works.

That’s the whole point.

Be your own experiment.

Day One Again

Maybe that’s what this entire mindset shift comes down to.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment.

Stop assuming the first attempt has to become the permanent solution.

Stop treating someone else’s experience as the final word.

Stop talking yourself out of things before you’ve even tried them.

And stop living in “one day.”

Sometimes you just need a day one.

Then comes day two.

Adjust.

Then day three.

Adjust again.

Keep what works.

Change what doesn’t.

And if something isn’t for you?

Let it fly.

Keep the lesson.

Keep the data.

Move forward.

You can always circle back.

Because day one gives you something one day never can:

evidence.

Evidence that you can start.

Evidence that you can change.

Evidence that you can adapt.

Evidence that you can learn.

And maybe most importantly, evidence that you don’t have to have everything figured out before you move forward.

You can start.

You can learn.

You can change.

You can try again.

You can walk away.

You can come back later.

And you can build a life that is increasingly your own.

Day one, not one day.

Thanks for reading The Deep Dive!

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