Finding my baseline

I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote:

Sometimes unsolvable questions like “what is my purpose?” and “why should I exist?” lose their force upon lifestyle fixes. In other words, seeing friends regularly and getting enough sleep can go a long way to solving existentialism.

Source

I like this idea of checking my baseline whenever my inner voice starts flipping out. So far, here’s how I am defining my baseline:

• Slept at least 7 hours
• Well hydrated (gallon per day)
• Didn’t skip my run/workout
• Haven’t binged on junky carbs
• Took my vitamins
• Working no more than 40 hours
• Journaled that day

If anything is wrong in my life – say I’m losing my temper with the kids, I’m stressed at work, or I’m not communicating well with Nancy – then one of those things is probably false. When I’m not meeting my baseline, then all bets are off.

So now I have a checklist to run through whenever I’m in a bad place. How do you define your baseline?