Day 8.5 - You're Still Doing the Thing (Even When You Aren't)

Ugghhhhh!

You may notice that it's January 12, and I am just now writing January 8.

I'm really glad I decided to give myself this challenge because I am hitting EVERY block and obstacle I normally hit when I try to do something new.

It's very informative and also helpful because I'm here with you, dealing with it in the moment.

Here's what happened. (Not an excuse, just an explanation. Maybe you can relate).

January 8 was a Sunday, and I like to laze around and have a completely unstructured, unplanned day on Sundays.

It's the day of the week when I go with the flow and do whatever I feel like.

That might be doing chores so I can feel fresh and prepped for the week, or it might mean playing video games all day.

In this case, it was lying around in bed for a lavish amount of time and then running around all day until dinner.

Nowhere in that day did I make room in my brain for a blog post.

This is excellent information for this coming Sunday.

Perhaps I will SCHEDULE IT IN ADVANCE! Wuuuuuut?

Point being, I didn't anticipate my Sunday routine getting in the way of my new writing routine, so older, wiser Sunday Routine won out.

THEN, posts just kept piling up.

I ran a meeting from 9am-3pm, which for me means a lot of early morning preparation due to not planning far enough ahead.

I'm sure you're sensing a pattern here.

By the time I got home, I had car drama to deal with and decompressing to do. No writing.

Tuesday was the second session of my new group coaching program. And training.

3 blog posts that day? I don't think so.

It went on and on all week until Thursday night when the relief of just doing it pulled me to my laptop.

Sound familiar?

This started out as a scheduling problem and then became a PILING ON problem.

I had so much to "catch up on" that I made it bigger in my head and didn't get back on track.

This is so common, especially with our rampant perfectionism epidemic.

So here's what I would normally recommend you do:

Just pick up where you left off and don't worry about catching up!

You're still doing your new habit, even if you miss a few days.

I'm still the type of person who writes, even if I didn't do it as consistently as I liked. But I SURE as hell learned from it.

I am choosing to catch up on the last few days because I'm genuinely enjoying this process of writing invisible posts as an experiment I may share later, and because I have a lot I want to say this month.

The choice is yours, and you choose what would serve you best.

If trying to "catch up" and feeling constantly "behind" is paralyzing you, let it go.

You've already gotten what you need out of what you've learned, done, heard, seen, etc. so far.

Should you so desire to "catch up," do it because you love it, because once you get past your initial dread, it's actually pretty fun.

Either way? You're still doing the thing, even if you took a break.

The only way you've failed is if you stop trying again.

Day 8 complete.

See you soon.

Sending so many warm vibes,

Steph