my not so pointless, rant 😅

You remember those motivational speakers from back in the day? The ones who defined life for us and expected us to just get it? Well, I expect you not just to get—but to relate to—this opener:

Life is a huge heap of laundry. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t even pause.

One day you’re washing, the next you’re folding, and before you know it—another pile of dirty clothes is waiting for round two. The cycle never ends.

I’m sitting in a café on a Saturday evening. Newsletter? Still unpublished. So with nothing else to do, I decided to finally tackle that big personal project I’d been putting off—with a deadline I already missed.

When I wrote perfection is in completion, I really thought it would carry me through. You know, my light at the end of the tunnel. And it worked… for a while. Until the motivation wore off, and now all I’ve got are scraps—scraps of motivation.

The big word: Systems

But even though the darkness has lingered, I know where I went wrong. And maybe even how to fix it? Still navigating that part—but I’m hopeful. Let’s talk about what went wrong: Systems. James Clear’s words echo in my mind on repeat:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

And I had a system. I really did. I knew the exact day and time I’d create content. I had mental rituals for psyching myself up. But the problem with my system was… consistency.

Consistency and showing up

Consistency has been that elusive lover I keep chasing. It has its own route, its own rhythm. And every time I think I’ve caught it, it slips away. Sometimes I show up. Sometimes I try again. Two weeks later? The habit is long forgotten—and forsaken. So I started digging deeper. Because not everything is surface-level. And because—yes—you do need to find the light at the end.

Let me confess: I am not a morning person. At all. There was a time I tried to force myself to be one—you know, 4 a.m. wake-ups, productive-before-sunrise glam. The “morning hustle” aesthetic. Yeah… I lasted one day. And I didn’t even take away any lessons. Years later, I finally accepted it: I’m a night owl. I gave up the morning schtick, because it simply wasn’t me.

Okay, my tangents have taken us places I didn’t expect. But we continue, regardless. I always get lost—even IRL, btw. Okay, back to the article.

Over the past few weeks, here’s what I’ve learned (and keep learning): Showing up isn’t halfway there. Screw that. Showing up is everything. Ideas don’t matter unless you sit down and do the work. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when the dirty laundry starts piling up again. Next lesson I picked up - you only need that little thing. I’ll credit this idea to Wangari Maathai.

That one little thing

I’ve attended a bunch of tech events. I’ve organized a bunch more. And when I do, there’s always swag. So much swag. Most of my go-to items are branded—by one company or another. But recently, I’ve realized I need to stop accepting swag. Especially t-shirts I only wear once (if ever). And that got me thinking… Life constantly tells us to do everything, know everything, carry everything. But really, you only need one thing. Just that one thing.

Okay, maybe I have lost you. But filling your cup (or your closet) with everything? Eventually, you run out of space. I’ve been drawing semi-consistently lately—and making it my main hobby has brought me peace. I don’t need a long hobby checklist anymore. I have one main character (drawing), and the rest? Side characters. Extras.

Circling back to systems

Let’s circle back to systems before we wrap this maybe pointless but not really rant. Lack of systems is also a system. Like when you go to a government office and spend the whole day waiting for “systems to be restored”? Yep. That’s a system failure. Old systems that aren’t updated? They go stale. But building new ones? That takes time. Trial. Error. A mountain of mistakes. So you just have to start. That’s it.

As laundry piles up— have you noticed the longer you take to do it, the fewer clothing options you have? It’s not even a valid question, but I know you get it. The longer you delay, the more overwhelming it becomes. Soon, you’re not just dealing with a pile. You’ve got a laundry empire, and you’re the emperor. Or empress 👑.

So… to wrap up this now-pointy rant:

Create micro-systems.

  • When you wake up, what’s your routine?

  • How do you ease into work or school and stay focused?

  • How do you take care of yourself—at least once a day?

  • What does your wind-down look like?

  • Do you move your body?

  • When you sleep, is there a ritual? A moment of pause?

    (Or just wild nightmares? 😆)

Whatever it is—build your rhythm. One rinse cycle at a time.