When “Going Through the Motions” is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged.

Some days are better than others, by definition. Don’t even try to make Every Single Day the best day.

The ESD philosophy is a mindset, not a contest. It’s a way of living, not an award ceremony. There are days that won’t be as good as the previous day and others that will be downright worth forgetting. But Every Single Day means that you’re at it every day, not every other day and not only when you feel like it.

I’m not sure how to say this without sounding like a cop-out, like a way to cheat the system. It doesn’t give you license to choose a bad day, to create a bad day. But if you’re in the ESD program, you’re probably not one to choose to perform poorly: you want to do well because that’s who you are.

There are days where you’ll just go through the motions, but as we discuss in other chapters, going through the motions is part of the program. In fact, going through the motions is healthy and necessary. It’s part of the training, in fact, it is the training.

When you’re on autopilot, you’re doing the work without thinking about it. Are you writing the greatest novel of all time or reaching the summit of your best project? Who knows. You’ll probably know later, but you wouldn’t know if you weren’t doing the work, day in, day out: Every Single Day.

So is it OK to have average days? Yes. Is it OK to shoot for average as a goal? Not recommended. Do the work, shoot for going through the motions because when you think you’re only doing it on autopilot, you might be to the point where you just advanced a level and didn’t even recognize it.

• Possible: Better than yesterday, worse than tomorrow.
• Impossible: Every Single Award-Winning Day
• Repossible: Every Single Day