Hey guys, Logan here, and today I just want to talk to you. No big piece of advice, or anything like that. I just wanted to check in with you.
First, I have to tell you about how the idea for this blog even came to be in the first place. I’ve never been a writer, but I keep thinking back to an assignment I was given in my final year of high school. It was for my Intro to Psychology class and we were assigned to write about how we thought our entire life would go. From the day of high school graduation to our eventual death. I remember being more excited for this project than any others I had ever been given. I wrote almost twenty pages, and back then, just like today, I didn’t consider myself a writer. We have a funny habit of doing this as humans, but the truth is: I write every morning so therefore, I am a writer. I workout every morning so therefore, I am athletic. We are what we do, day in and day out, for the best, or for the worst, our habits make up exactly who we are. So, long story short, this leads me to the Logan Baumgard Blog, and how it came to be. About twenty-two months ago, I started journaling every morning as a part of my morning routine. I started slow but eventually, before I knew it I was writing five or six pages a day, by hand, in this small journal I keep in my studio. As I continued to build this habit as a writer, my confidence grew, and two months ago I had a crazy idea: I want to write a book. So how does one start that process? Easy. Continue to build the habit. By writing every day, publishing my work for others to read, and making that mental note, I am a writer - eventually, I will have written a book. So that’s how this blog came to be, I just wanted to write about whatever popped in my head, and send it out into the world for you to do what you wished with it, and someday, put all this experience I have about surviving the human experiment into a book for you.
Nice tangent there Logan… let’s get back on track.
Today, I don’t have any huge piece of life advice, or any life hacks to share with you. I just wanted to make sure that you are taking care of yourself. Being a human isn’t easy, and I don't say that in the cliche manner in which it’s usually offered; I’ve been through Hell in my life, I’ve spent a good chunk of my adulthood in a mental prison of my own making. I know how hard it can be to lack the motivation to get out of bed, and to take care of yourself, day in and day out. There are several things that I have learned recently to break out of those chains you find yourself in, but I’ll share those as this blog continues, I won’t share them today. I’m not sharing them today, because today I just wanted you to know that I am here for you. I don’t know what personal battles you are facing right now, but I know that those battles can make even the simplest daily tasks feel impossible. We live in the hardest moment in human existence, everything is the most expensive it has ever been, we are the most isolated we have ever been, and every time you turn on the news? Forget about trying to be happy after watching Fox News or CNN tell you that everyone hates you. The world we live in today is so harsh and so unforgiving.
You have every right to feel overwhelmed by it all.
Take as much time as you need today for yourself. Don’t worry about work or what they expect of you, today is about you. If you need to spend the entire day laying in bed - watching your favorite show - then you deserve that break. If you want to go see a friend or family member who makes you feel safe - tell work you won’t be in and go see that person.
Today is about you.
We put so much pressure on ourselves to accomplish the next goal on our list of how we think life is supposed to go for us. Most of the time, this list wasn’t even created by you, it was designed by someone else, someone who thinks they know how you should live your life, better than you do. Then we spend our days being “fine” or out of habit we utter the word “good” when someone asks us how we are: “How are you Logan?” - “Oh, I’m good.” I would say with a frown on my face.
Please, for the love of God, do not do anything in this life unless you want to. We’ve forgotten this in such a massively cosmic way: Life is about being alive! The odds of you being born onto this planet with everything we need to survive are 1 in 400 Trillion. Let’s pause, and I want you to think about that for a moment. Like Mel Robbins said in her massively viral Ted Talk, with those odds, “Stop hitting the snooze button on your life”.
Take today for you, reset, focus on your mental health for once, instead of putting others first, and clear your head. You are always there with quick advice for your friends or for a family member, but when was the last time you said those kind and uplifting sentences to yourself? Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life, and I’ll be here waiting to welcome you into your new reality, here on the blog, on Spotify/Apple Music inside one of my songs, or albums, or on Instagram. I am always here for you.
You’ve got this!