I fucked up

Today’s article is a cross between a status check and a confession.

Two days ago I missed a day of writing in the 30 day challenge. I was 15 days in, and wrote 15 straight articles, and then I fucked it up.

I won’t go into detail about why I missed writing the article because it’s not interesting. It wasn’t some crazy extenuating circumstance. I was just really tired and it was a loooooooong day.

I actually thought that I could make it up by writing two articles in one day, and catching up so that no one would notice. However, that didn’t work out. I was no where close to getting two articles out.

I don’t really know what to make of this yet. I wanted so badly to complete this challenge. I was already 15 straight days in, and let me tell you, that was hard as hell to do.

A few days ago I wrote about how it is easier for me to write when things are going well. When I’m succeeding and achieving my goals I find some sort of example or lesson that I can extract from that success and teach others. But when things aren’t going well, it’s much more difficult.

So this is one of those more difficult times, but I feel I have to share it with you anyway.

Above all else, this 30 day challenge has been a test of will power. Almost every day has been extremely difficult to get an article out. Like painfully difficult. We’re in the middle of preparing for the launch of The Side Project Accelerator, and there’s an endless amount of work to do. So most days that means that I work from about 9 or 10 in the morning until 10 or 11 at night, often later. Only after I finish my regular work do I begin to write my article.

The Repercussions

So on the surface there wasn’t much blowback from missing a day. The world didn’t end, and I doubt that any of you reading this even noticed.

But it affected me. The second I missed that first day, I lost all of the motivation that I had built up. It was like instantly starting over from square 1. Actually even worse, because now I knew that I had already messed up the challenge and started thinking to myself, what’s the difference between one day missed or two days missed or three days.

There’s something really important about being consistent. When you do something repeatedly, especially something on a daily basis, it changes everything. You don’t ask yourself if you really have to do this, or play any of those mind games. It’s just a routine, and becomes something that you do because that’s what you do. No other reason needed.

So now I have to pick up the pieces and get back in the groove. I still have 13 days to go.