It’s snowing this morning, snowing those tiny, bitty flakes of 18 degrees Fahrenheit. They’re the kind of snowflakes a person can barely discern at first, until you realize that the whole scene in front of you is fuzzed with a vague, moving veil of continuous snowfall, depositing a new layer of fluffy, dry snow ever so slowly onto the snow left over from the other day’s dumping. I wonder why snowfall like this always lends the morning such an air of serenity and peacefulness?

Waking up at 5:30 this morning wasn’t my plan, but apparently it was my body’s plan. I guess this is the price I pay for going to bed so early every night, even if (gasp!) I pushed it to almost 10 p.m. last night. It’s just the natural rhythm of the world for me, to go to bed much, much earlier when it gets dark so much earlier, and then, consequently, to wake up naturally much, much earlier (though I do struggle in summer if the light hits my face in the morning—I can’t sleep a wink longer if this happens, no matter how late I go to bed).

Actually, I’ve just told myself I’m preparing for the time change in March, sort of living on the time I wish it were instead of the “real” time it is. Who cares, really? Time is such a weird human construct anyway. I get the point (it helps us be able to arrange meetings and coordinate with one another), but to free yourself from being governed by time or common cultural concepts of time and what a person is supposed to be doing at any given point in time, at least some of the time, is really quite liberating. When I climb, I often lose track of the time. This happens sometimes when I’m really into whatever I’m writing, too. Or hanging with good friends. And those times tend to be the best of times, no?

Yesterday’s bouldering session was one of those times, a little timeless window in my day. It was the sixth session of the winter, and I had one of those marvelous “look how far you’ve come in such a short time” experiences. I went back to the problems I’d made up in the first three sessions—problems that seemed really hard two and half weeks ago, including one with a dyno that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to do, and I systematically ticked most of them off (with a few notable exceptions, but  you have to always have something to keep working toward, right?). It was so cool to witness the progress and feel the results from training this winter already.

It’s so utterly motivating to continue training after a session like this one, too, so I followed it with another butt-beating drop-down pull-up session, plus other stuff (triceps, stretching, pushups, dips, squats, jumps). So good. I love the feeling after I’ve completed another good day of training for climbing, just an all-over whooped-up on satisfaction with my efforts, and also, excitement to see the gains I’ve recorded, which I sort of tally at the end of each session.

Onward into today, then. I have second-day on training to attend to first of all, and then I’m aiming to complete a bunch of marketing work for my upcoming book (Wyoming: An Explorer’s Guide). I’m hopeful that I’ll have enough energy to actually finish this today, which will free up much more of my non-training days for other endeavors.

However, since I only have three days that I’m not training for climbing every week, they already tend to feel absolutely full (and I do a cardio workout on two of them). It’s hard to do a good job on any creative endeavors on training days (this marketing stuff is fairly mindless list-making), and usually not worth it. I’m not complaining, though. I am loving this regimen, the total commitment to the training schedule and to putting climbing training first, and taking care of everything else afterward. It’s better to have a lot to do and to feel excited about doing it than to be sitting around twiddling my thumbs and feeling bored.

Life is too short for boredom, and if you’re bored, you should get out there and try to find something that inspires you instead of mucking about in your boredom and complaining about it. There’s nothing boring about this world (okay, except maybe waiting in line or listening to a droning lecture—yes, those types of trapped situations can be boring, but then again, you can always use them wisely, e.g. by visualizing the rock climb you’re trying to send), so if you’re bored, generally speaking, it’s your own fault. This means it’s also your own responsibility to change your circumstances and/or your mindset about your state of being. It’s up to you, and no one else, if you’re feeling bored, to relieve your boredom and rediscover daily excitement, passion, and adventure in your world.