A few days ago on Reddit, I wrote about two mind-shifts I made while making this blog that allowed me conquer my mental blocks and continue posting here regularly.
There is a third mental shift I had that I wanted to flesh out in greater detail today.
You Can Start Again
When I started this blog, I was on a roll. I posted every day religiously for about 40 days.
Then life went crazy.
Over the next two months, I went to a music festival, I traveled to Japan, I went partying, I tried tons of stuff. And by the end of this fun, but chaotic time, I had lost the habit of posting to my blog. I probably posted 3 times over that time period.
After that span of time, I would wake up every day and make the decision that I would post when I got back from work. And most days would pass without a post to show for it.
This kept on happening until one day, I decided to sit down and reason through what was causing this mental block. I wrote my way through my feelings until I finally found the conclusion: I was trying to continue where I left off.
I was on such a huge righteous push in the first 30 days that I had started stretching my posts to very high average timers. 20 Minutes A Day had become 1 Hour A Day.
Once again, I was setting the bar too high for myself. I was like the guy who returned to the gym after years away expecting to lift 2 plates just like the old days.
I had grown accustomed to doing nothing for the blog for a month, how could I expect myself to suddenly output so much again right away?
So I reset my goal to only 20 minutes a day and was able to post once again.
Reset
I think this happens all the time in life. People don’t realize that if they’re starting over, they have to reset their expectations too.
Athletes come back from injury expecting to do what they used to do right away and either re-injure themselves or quit because they get impatient.
People fall off their diets and gain back 15 pounds. Now in their minds they have to lose 15 pounds AND the 15 extra pounds they just gained. The bar is even higher than it was before they did anything at all.
That thinking is false. You aren’t more behind because you used to do something and then stopped. You are simply where you are now.
In fact, you are still ahead because now you know exactly what it takes to get back to where you were when you stopped. So go ahead and take those first steps again. Start again.
Time: 23:05
More work in dialogue. Used this tutorial.
20 Minutes A Day 