A retired mailman in Reno asked me one question about my 'perfect' morning routine and I haven't stopped thinking about it

Evan Adams · 2026-09-24T11:35:03.487823+00:00

I was sitting on a bench outside a coffee place on Wells Ave about two weeks ago, waiting for my wife to finish up in the store next door, and this older guy in a USPS jacket sat down with his own cup. We got to talking and somehow it came up that I wake up at 5:15 every morning, cold plunge, journal, the whole thing I've been doing for like 14 months now. He listened for a while and then just asked me, plain as anything, 'who told you that was the right way to start a day?' I didn't have an answer. I found the whole routine on a YouTube video, copied it, and never once asked myself why those specific things, or whether they even fit my life. He said he walked the same route for 31 years and his only morning ritual was black coffee and talking to his dog, and he retired happier than most guys he knows. I've been doing my routine for two weeks since then but now I keep catching myself wondering if I'm doing it because it helps me or because some guy with a ring light told me to. Has anyone else built a whole routine off the internet and then questioned it later?

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A retired mailman in Reno asked me one question about my 'perfect' morning routine and I haven't stopped thinking about it | Ask Anything - Librear