Jim Lunsford

I originally posted the theme this site uses on GitHub, but I took it down for now.

I’m making a lot of changes to it and didn’t want broken versions of it floating around out there.

I still haven’t decided if I’ll put it back up once it’s where I want it. If I do, I’ll post the link here.

Five hours of sleep after my first night shift.

Honestly, I woke up exhausted and a little cranky. Skipped the run to conserve energy, but still got in a solid 30 minutes of strength training.

One of the biggest lies people live by is this one: if I do not feel right, today does not count the same.

That lie does damage.

It teaches people to wait for a supportive mood before they act, as if standards only matter when the mind is calm, the body is energized, and emotion is cooperating. But the whole point of a standard is that it keeps standing when your mood does not. Otherwise, it is not a standard. It is a preference that depends on conditions.

That is why bad days matter so much. Not because they are special. Because they expose who is really in charge.

When mood says back off, loosen up, skip it, or do it tomorrow, and you hold the line anyway, that is where self-trust starts getting earned.

More here in the latest Recovery Standard: https://jimlunsford.com/recovery-standard-standards-beat-mood/

I realized I’ve never really shared any public context about my recent job changes.

I work full time in the recovery space through Disciplined Recovery and, until recently, with a major healthcare and mental health company.

I left that role to keep doing the same kind of work inside a correctional facility while continuing to build my business.

I do not trust people who speak first and build later.

That order is wrong.

Too many people want a message before they have earned one. They want to teach before they have governed themselves. They want the microphone before they have done enough private work to make their words believable. So they end up speaking from aspiration, not evidence. They talk like the person they want to become while their real life is still exposing the gap.

That is not leadership.
That is performance.

I trust the people who paid for what they know. The ones who bled for the lesson. The ones whose standards show up when nobody is watching. The ones whose life says it before their mouth does.

More here: https://jimlunsford.com/do-the-work-first-then-speak/

Just like I thought. Couldn’t nap. I have no idea how people do it.

Got an easy run in and some mobility work. Now it’s time to get ready.

Epic fail getting ready for tonight’s shift.

Fell asleep at 3:00 a.m. and was back up at 7:20 a.m.

I’m not a napper, but I’m about to try.

Later today, since it’s 2:24 a.m., I head back to the jail.

I haven’t worked nights in over a year and a half, so I’m staying up late, or early depending on how you look at it, to get ready for the 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift.

That schedule won’t last forever. Hopefully in a month or two I’ll make my way back to the world of the living.

I’m grateful for the chance to go back. I hope to make the same kind of impact I made before with people struggling with addiction and mental health.

The recovery coaching continues, just in a different space, and right where I need to be.

The voice in your head is usually strongest when you first start changing.

Not because change is fake.
Because your past gave that voice evidence.

Broken promises.
Dropped standards.
Old patterns repeated enough times that doubt started sounding reasonable.

That is why the answer is not to debate with it all day.
The answer is to outwork its case.

Do what you said.
Then do it again tomorrow.
Then keep going long enough that the old argument starts sounding outdated.

More here: https://jimlunsford.com/discipline-dispatch-let-actions-answer/