What's one high ROI habit you wished you had?

Continuing from my previous question “What’s your highest ROI habits?”, the question I’m reflecting on today:

"What’s one high ROI habit you wished you had? What’s holding you back from not doing it today?"

That’s a toughie. Not because I’d done it all and don’t need to wish for any, but because it’s never easy to admit one’s own failings, especially those I know to be a failing but I’d never done anything about it.

A great question is also a powerful mirror, to help you come to terms with your own lack.

But I digress…

The one high ROI habit I wish I had is… knowing how to rest well.

I truly wish I knew how to take it easy and take breaks regularly. I mean, I understand the principle behind why I should do it, but I’m not acting a the way that reflects that knowledge. In sports, I know that deloading is as important as loading. Rest days are as important as training days, and should be treated with the same level of seriousness and discipline as training.

So why am I not living up to that knowledge?

The extrinsic excuse is that I’m not in the best financial situation now, due to the COVID-induced economic fallout. So the money anxiety does play a part in making me always feel on edge and not having enough to be worthy of a break.

But even on good seasons when I don’t have those money woes, I found that I’ll make up new reasons and goals to keep going without rest. That’s where the intrinsic forces come to play – that unhealthy achievement-oriented personality. Impatience with results, needing to constantly be pushing myself, and anxiety around slipping if I take a break, all adds to why I don’t rest well.

So I got ‘great’ excuses. But what am I going to do about it?

I don’t know. I think until a time when I can get my finances back to health, I might never feel like I have enough to be worthy of a break. So maybe what that implies is that I should solve that problem fast. Extrinsic problems are easy in that, solve the external, and you solve the internal.

OK will do that.

But it’s the intrinsic issues that’s harder. Even if I do solve the extrinsic, that is, get enough money, I might still keep going anyway. Maybe making it extrinsic might help? Planning rest day, adding reminders, making the plans public to make myself accountable. The usual habit hacks to make it stick out the outside. Maybe through repeated performance on the outside, can I slowly make a dent on the inside.

We’ll see.