My colleague Kay posted about a new habit she’s forming at the moment, to share what she’s learning with others.
For me this year I wanted to write more, and rejuvenate this blog.
The blog was languishing a bit, until I decided I to try the A-Z Challenge in April, and got myself blogging everyday. I have kept it up ever since. Apart from a couple of lapses because I was sick last month, I have been managing to post almost daily. I enjoy the time I take to sit down and write a few ideas. Not everything gets posted, but the point is the writing.
If all I want to do is write, you might be wondering why it needs to be in a blog? Well, if I tell myself I am going to write in my journal the activity seems to be a lot more hit and miss. That is, sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. I seem to be able to find excuses to not do it. Because no one sees the journal but me, well, it doesn’t seem to matter if I slip up.
Blogging, on the other hand, seems to be a good discipline, I think because it’s public. If I post here and say I’m going to blog every day and then I don’t, you, dear reader, can see my lapse. So I have a motivation to continue.
I know that I can develop new habits if I want to.
Some years back I decided I was going to try early rising (getting up at 5am daily). It was hard, not least because I stupidly started the experiment in winter and therefore had to force myself out of bed in the cold and dark. I stuck with it, though, and am now most definitely an early riser, and a morning person.
With the 5am wake up time, I think what worked was:
- Forcing myself to do it EVERYDAY.
- Not letting myself think too much about it. I can remember lying in the dark thinking how nice and warm the bed was. I’d start to think I’d maybe prefer to just stay in bed instead, just today. I’d consciously squelch the thought aside and get up anyway. If I let the thoughts go on too long, I’d talk myself out of it.
- Of course, I failed sometimes. When that happened, I didn’t beat myself up for failing. I’d just make damn sure I went back to the routine the next day.
- Rinse, repeat. And again.
- Oh, I blogged about it, too. The public accountability element again.
I’m trying this same practice for daily writing. Point 2 is the key here: not letting myself agonise too much about it. With writing/blogging, it’s easy to start to worry about the fact that the writing is not perfect. I don’t know about you, but that worry works perfectly as a deterrent. (UGH!) So for me, when sitting at the keyboard doesn’t work, I pick up a pen. (Or vice versa.) This seems to be working for the time being.
It can be hard, but very pleasing when you see the results. That’s what I keep reminding myself of, with blogging. The results: clearer thinking, better writing skills (not to be sneezed at), actual posts, comments, making new friends, being part of something bigger – the net.
4 Comments
The question your post raises for me (and about me) is why do we set ourselves such challenges? Why did you want to change your habits to getting up at 5am? Urgh – why not going to bed at 2am? What did you want to gain as an outcome from it? And why do you want to write every day? Doing this challenge is one thing as it has a collegiate fun and provide a framework for a short time. Why do I want to take 1-2 photos every day for two challenges and another three each week for a themed challenge? It certainly gives me to think. I have blogged about it a few times so I might reread those posts. But thanks for making to do some personal reflection.
Why do we set ourselves such challenges?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I like to have personal challenges. Small ones, anyway.
As for why I wanted to get up at 5am, back then it was the sense of not having any time to do anything at all in the morning before going to work, that drove me. It was all a mad rush (get up, get dressed, go to work), which I hated. By getting up at least two hours before it was time to leave, I gave myself extra time in the mornings.
Why do I want to write everyday? Because deep down, I enjoy it. And yet I find I procrastinate, make all sorts of excuses to get out of doing it – why is that?
PS thanks for the link to the Leo Babauta article. I enjoyed.
The public accountability aspect is working for me as well, and I totally agree with your point about not agonising too much about what we write!