Reminder to Self: Don’t Break the Chain

Consistency - regular action toward a goal, no matter how small it might be - is better than sporadic action or no action at all.?It’s a lesson I took a long time to learn. A long time. When I first started writing, my commitment to myself, the habit I sought to develop, was one article a week.

I’ve mostly hit this mark but every so often things get away from me and I miss a week. 2022 is off to a less than stable start. This is the 7th week of 2022 and my 5th article. I’ve missed two weeks. ?

Here is why the consistency is important. You have momentum on your side. As I’m learning again, it is SOOO much harder to post an article the week after I’ve missed a week.

I’m reminded of advice from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Seth Godin. Seinfeld has talked about ‘not breaking the chain.’ In my case, this looks like an article in week 1, then in week 2 and then week 3 and so on. At the end of a year, that’s 52 articles. That’s a lot of content and ideas. It’s ok, I have a lot to say. ??

Clear articulates this in a different, but equally compelling way. He agrees that sometimes life will conspire, and we break the habit. He says, “missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”

And starting a new habit is HARD, much harder than keeping a streak going, even after three years.

From Godin I have learned the value of practicing and ‘doing the work.’ For me this looks like writing on a daily basis. I’ve stopped and started this habit since taking Akimbo’s Creatives Workshop in which one of the goals is a streak of 100 days of creative work (whatever your creative work happens to be). This is hard but it’s like strength training. You get stronger with each repetition you do.

Every day I show up and do my creative work, I am saying to myself that I am worth it. It both unlocks something inside me that allows me to be more available and generous with others while firming up some core foundation of myself.

Here is my contribution to this formula. Once you are in a consistent habit, don’t change the frequency of what counts as having met the goal. I’m successful at 2x/ week yoga and have been for over 8 years. I’m never going to move the goalpost to 3 times a week or 4. I’ll stick with two and just enjoy any extra yoga classes I can manage.

I want to re-gain my momentum for my once-a-week articles.?This is the first in my new streak. I don’t need to think about how many I’ll have at the end of the year. I need to write a new piece every week.

A related goal is one I (re)started in February. On every weekday I’m committed to posting something on LinkedIn and doing my daily writing.

To keep me going, I’m going to go old school and institute a ???????? ???????? ???????????? for myself. Oh, I like that idea. I will use the ‘year in pixels’ worksheet I got from Passion Planner (my latest favorite planner plus accessories; link in comments). It can serve multiple purposes. And it’s a most wonderful excuse to buy more sticker books. The smiley faces are for yoga; the flowers are for blog posts. The two X's are the weeks I missed.

Cadence + Consistency + Visible Reward has worked with other goals I’ve sent. I’m already excited about what my chart will look like by the end of the year.

What habits are you cultivating? What will help you keep the streak??