Good morning, Day 100!
What I suspected on Day 1 and know in my bones today
🎵 Today’s song: Good Morning — Max Frost
If you’re reading this: hurrah! We made it.
Whether you’ve been singing along for all 100 days, or dropped in somewhere around Day 47 and every fourth day since, or found this yesterday and binged in reverse over lunch… you’re here. On Day 100. Which is not nothing. It’s actually everything, because choosing to show up is the whole practice of systematic subtraction.
So before the prizes, invitations, or announcements of what’s to come, I want to share what these 100 days have shown me.
Something I Now Know Deeply That I Didn’t Used To Trust
Repetition is the way to growth, not a backup plan when you stumble.
I’ve known the power of daily practice for years. How could I not with my studies of neuroscience, habit research, the James Clear gospel… But 100 consecutive days of writing, thinking, and living a single framework have taught me this lesson at a different level. I have seen that going deeper into an idea, repeatedly, consistently, is the only way that paradigm shifts can happen. And — importantly! — it’s not about adding anything in those recurring sessions, but simply excavating one single theme.
Like Liz Bucar’s teacher instructed: if I tell you you’ll get to water by digging a hole 100 feet deep and you dig ten holes, each ten feet deep, you won’t get to water.
What shifted in how I live my days
When I finished something (a webinar, an article, a hard conversation), I used to default immediately to NEXT. Next to-do. Next snack break. Next article to ‘get ahead of’. The gap between activities wasn’t so much the white space of intentional transition as a hurried flip of the page.
In retrospect, that feels so obviously sub-optimal. So I’m glad to say that it has changed.
The interstitial moments — mornings before diving in, fifteen free minutes after an intense work session, a Thursday afternoon that unintentionally stayed (or got) meeting-free — now stay open. And they spark magic!
Like when, a few weeks ago, I took a break between posts and just... browsed Substack. I came across a thinker I’d never encountered, read through her work, and reached out about joining me for a Subtraction Session. Before the end of the day she said yes!
Thank You, For Having Been Here
In whatever level of presence and depth you have, indeed, been here… No matter the flavor it has come in, your presence has mattered more than you can know.
Each post was written for you, helper: an ambitious, big-hearted person slogging through the mud of leading and living in an unprecedented time. Who wants to make a difference, but also survive to tell the tale, and maybe even — some days at least — feel good while doing it.
If that’s been you, building your subtraction muscle alongside me: I’d love to know what you learned. Not in essay form (that’s my job), or even fully-formed thoughts. But I’d be so grateful if you’d share any surprises, victories, ongoing challenges, or questions.
Drop ‘em in the comments. Learning together is the WE dimension of this practice, as well as the ROLL of your subtraction sequence, and where a lot of the potential for transformation lies.
That co-curiosity is exactly what I want to nurture going forward. So here are three ways to keep on rollin’, together. Take what serves, leave what doesn’t.
