On giving yourself a break

Cut yourself some slack, man.

I set out this month to write every day for thirty days. Here I am, almost 2/3 of the way through and I’ve written 10 posts.

Not ideal, but hey, you’ve got to give yourself a break sometimes.

Too quickly, I think, we get wrapped up in what we’re “suppose” to do, or what the plan was. We think there are rules to follow and if we break them, it’s all over. Whether we set the rules for ourselves or they’re written in stone somewhere doesn’t matter — we just think that once a rule is broken, the option to complete something is off the table.

I think this also ties into my idea of routines and how to form habits. I used to think that you had to really dive deep into doing something to make it a habit or to at least get good at it and you had to follow the rules to complete it. I’d always tell myself I’d start working out next month, because [enter stupid excuse here]. Or I would start making stop motion videos tomorrow because I have to do work today. Whatever the end goal was, I’d make up an excuse to avoid it.

The reality is that habits and routines come when you create them for you. Not anyone else.

One routine I’ve come to love and practice daily? Washing my face.

But when I skip it? I don’t give myself a hard time. But I do go back to it because it makes me feel good.

Same with meditation. And now, writing.

But the key to my successful routines now is that if they’re broken, I don’t believe that the world isn’t over. Keep doing what you’re doing (if it makes you happy or helps you towards and end goal) and don’t sweat over the gaps. They’ll fill in later.

This is post #11 of my 30 day writing challenge. Keep up with it here.