One Tomato?

I have some exciting details on the challenge.

I have put a lot of thought into how to structure the challenge to make it beneficial to you. Tonight, I think I can make a strong case for engaging with the now-named One Tomato Challenge.

Before we dive in, a word on the trees. Many people have been reaching out to inquire about supporting the tree mission.

I will have more details on how to get involved with that very soon. Today I had a call with Austin Unruh to discuss the various things going on around the state, and I've come away even more excited than I was before.

We're going to need all the help we can get, but together I really feel that we can instigate important change.

There will come a time in the near future when I will be seeking signatures of support for a letter that will be submitted to a whole host of important decision makers. I am drafting the letter now.

The working title is "A Commoner's Appeal For The Common Wealth of Trees".

If I am being completely honest, I am more excited to write this than anything else I've ever written.

So I've got that going for me, which is good...

Now about the challenge.

One Tomato. Can you handle that?

Surely you can handle one tomato!

Oh, right. You don't know what a tomato is yet.

I bet you are a little curious. I would be.

Perhaps I've just lost my mind. Perhaps you're watching it all fall apart in real time! Perhaps this whole tree mission was really just a cover to launch a corny self help goo-roo business!

...Perhaps! (Hi Mike.)

Look, this is too important to not do. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

This is too important to not do.

This is our lives we're talking about! You only get one.

It's quite literally now or never.

As my dad loves to say...

Shit or get off the pot.

Can I say that? I say yes.

If you don't like it, you can get off the pot.

I have been experimenting in building bootcamps and improving habits for as long as I can remember.

Here is what I know.

You deserve to feel good at least most of the time.

If you don't, there is something to work on.

There is something there that you can direct your attention to with the simple goal of fixing the thought patterns in that area in order to leave yourself feeling good again.

That's the secret to life.

Your job, as a human, is to think.

Inside that brain of yours, you have a basal ganglia.

One of the basal ganglia's jobs is to find patterns of behavior that regularly lead to a reward of some sort.

The basal ganglia is old though.

At least 500 million years old. As far as I know, everything that ever had a back bone has one of these things.

The challenge here is that the basal ganglia has a surprising amount of influence on our moment to moment decisions - and we've invented an awful lot of things that give us dopamine that aren't good for us.

That little dopamine-seeking hack our brains perform on us leads us down some unfulfilling pathways.

Weak, tired, sick, bored, and miserable.

Do you realize how many of us spend time regularly feeling at least one of these things?

Weak, tired, sick, bored, and miserable.

I don't know about you, but I don't like feeling like that.

I won't be done doing these types of challenges until I've rooted out every last scrap of feeling less good than I could.

And since I am human and imperfect, I expect that this will be a lifelong, continuous effort in self improvement and feeling good.

I think thats pretty much life.

It's the process.

Life is not static.

Okay, enough lip wagging.

The One Tomato Challenge.

The name comes from the Pomodoro technique. Pomodoro means tomato in italian. A pomodoro is 25 minutes of focused work.

The challenge is simple. Commit at least 25 minutes of unbroken attention to feeling good in an area of your life that you most want to focus on for 28 days straight.

25 minutes. You can do 25 minutes.

We tend to put off doing important things until later. We make up a lot of excuses about why we are putting it off for later.

Now isn't the right time because I'm tired.

Today isn't the right day because I have too many things going on.

I'll wait until tomorrow to start that because there are people coming over later.

No matter what, there is always an excuse you can make to wait for later.

The result is we get trapped in the status quo. We get trapped in our routines. We do the same things every day.

Sometimes something will happen that will force us to take action. A deadline looms. It's now or never.

Too often that deadline is one life is emposing.

Let's not let that happen.

Let's take action.

Let's commit do doing our work every single day.

This is the idea behind the one tomato challenge.

Clarify your roles, values, and goals. Pick the thing that you believe is most important for you to focus on.

Commit to 25 minutes of unbroken attention each day for 28 days straight.

We're going to play a game of "Don't break the chain" together.

Every day you do your work, you get to mark off a day. If you miss a day, you have to start your chain over.

We're going to have fun, and you are in full control of what you direct your attention to.

You can finally commit to keeping your house tidy. You can start the YouTube channel you've always dreamed of. Build something cool out of wood. Spend more time talking to friends and loved ones.

Meditate.

Take a bath and grab a glass of wine.

Launch a farm.

Eat better and take a walk.

I don't care.

Just pick something that will make you feel good and do it.

Every day.

Life is good.