#136🚿 Surrendering is not giving up

A daily commitment to Trust

Let’s put the “Personal” back into Personal Development

---

Shower thought🚿: How to live with clarity, without fear.
I keep a (mostly) consistent morning routine.
I like routines. They anchor my weeks and provide a foundation to accomplish what I want from life.

I rise early and sleepwalk to the coffee pot (priorities people).
I stretch a little, and wake up my body with a consistent yoga flow.
I then plant my *** on the couch, curl up in a blanket (how relaxed of me), and open my kindle to read scripture and sometimes other books.

Then I try a loooong and ever-changing list of “hacks” to set my day up for success — Affirmations, visualizations, prayer, ‘subconscious training’, journaling, daily planning, etc. — the list goes on.

OH I forgot to mention the mornings is also when I write this newsletter….

In a perfect world, this works — I do “the things” and “then I’m good”.
But we don’t live in a perfect world, do we?

Your “Routines” will never be enough

The perfect morning routine doesn’t exist.
“Fully optimized” is a fools folly.
You can’t “put all the pieces together.”

No matter how hard we try, we will fall short of perfection.
Things will break — Motivation will wane — Disruption will occur.

We live in a beautiful, messy, chaotic world that’s mostly out of our control. You can try to bend it to your will, or move confidently in it’s rhythm.

The truth about Surrendering

On the surface, that statement could be very disheartening — The world is chaos, and there is no point in trying to control it.

It doesn’t sit well with me personally. I have high agency. I’m a self-starter, loyalist-achiever. I want to accomplish things and focus on my personal actions.

I don’t like the idea of not being in control of my future.
I believe in personal accountability — “What can I do to change my situation?”

The real truth is surrender is the highest form of agency.
It’s NOT giving up — it’s letting go.
It’s not weakness — it’s strength in adaptability.
It’s not a lack of planning — it’s an openness to unlimited possibilities.

Surrender in Action

I started this week uninspired, burnt-out, and stressed.
Call it “A case of the Mondays”.

Between my personal life, family conflict, and a constant never-ending pressure to perform — it all felt like too much.

SO MUCH to start the week that I had no idea how I could get to the weekend and forget about it all.

I cowered.
I went through the motions.
I suffered, my work suffered, and I left others and myself uninspired.

I did this all day until I crashed at 7pm with my mind still racing.

When I woke from the couch at 11:30pm, I was gifted a clear thought —
“I did not surrender today.”

You see, I tried lots of things.
But I didn’t walk in faith and trust.
Instead I suffered in fear, anxiety, and shame.

Surrender is a daily act.
Perhaps the most important decision we can make every day.

"Will I act with the strength and confidence given through faith and trust,
Or will I let fear dictate my actions.”

You decide.

— Keep Moving Forward.

---

THANK YOU for making it to the end!

The ColdShower: Weekly ideas for better health, habits, and happiness.