Playing Jenga With My Good Habits
I’ve recently realized that successfully sustaining a good habit is all about consistently building momentum. I liken myself to a ball rolling downhill. If I continue with good habits, I’m creating an obstacle-free path. The longer I can do this, the longer the hill will last and the further I will go. But once I momentarily cease the habit or forget to follow it, all of a sudden, the hill shortens and I’m moving slower. I lose kinetic energy, I lose acceleration and I lose motivation.
At any given point, I am running about a dozen experiments on myself. Write once a week. Learn a new concept once a week. Listen to a podcast every day. Learn something new from a stranger once a week. And so forth. Once any of those ball drops, several more come down as well. In many cases, near instantly. I start to spiral, but I don’t consciously realize it in the moment. At first, I create a false reward scheme for myself where I substitute mindful practices with low level forms of instant gratification — I begin checking FB and Instagram more regularly, I start re-introducing more junk food into my diet, etc. I convince myself these won’t act as major distractions because I have control over their frequency. Wrong, I don’t. At least not right now I don’t. As soon as these practices happen, they double down quickly. Soon I’ve lost sight of carrying through with half of my experiments. Time seems to pass more quickly and yet I feel I am getting less out of each day.
Time for a refresh.
I think back to what point in time I started losing momentum. Was it that three days in a row where I spent too much time lallygagging and didn’t really do anything productive? Probably. Did that three days somehow turn into a week before I actually realized what was happening? Absolutely. That’s fine. Once I recognize the pattern, that will be the extent of the pity-party I’ll throw for myself. No need for guilt, just acknowledge it, move on and be better.
Now I’m writing this post and it feels unnatural — like I’m doing it to check off an item from my to-do list rather than it be a genuine inspiration. It’s a bit forced, but that’s fine. I haven’t written in over a week. I broke my experiment, but I’m fixing it now. A week is all it takes for me to feel out of practice with something. I know, I enter into and enter out of things quickly. I’m trying to change that.
I’ll always create diversions and speed bumps for myself but the trick is be aware of these, push through, and continue building momentum regardless. If not, good habits will die fast. They’ll never get the chance to become great habits.
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