“Forgot? Forget! Keep Going” is a rule I use while I establish new habits.
Habits need consistency to build up. At the initial stage of forming habit, we usually don’t miss any days. But as time builds up, motivation fades away and we slowly start to move away from our habit building goal.
During this period, there’s high chance that we will miss our habit building streak some day. And most of us get discouraged and never go back into forming that habit again.
I think it’s the critical point where we all fall off our goal. Missing a day when we are on solid streak is very demotivating. We then abandon our habit building goal altogether. It’s mainly because we take ” I missed yesterday” so seriously. The more you dwell into it, the more demotivated you get.
Instead of taking it so seriously, it’s better to forget that you missed a day, and then start again. Just keep going. It shouldn’t matter at all.
The main goal is to establish a habit, not to have a solid streak. Of course, if you have a solid streak, you’ll have established a habit. But you shouldn’t keep the fate of your new habit solely on building the streak. There should be no external factor effecting your habit building goal.
Focusing solely on building streak might effect your habit building goal. You can build habits even if you miss a day.
It’s like you refrained from eating junk foods for 3 weeks and you suddenly ate a small amount of junk food, and then you freak out that your 3 week streak came to an end and then leave the habit and start eating junk foods again.
That shouldn’t happen. If you ate small amount of junk food, fine. Continue your habit building streak again. Just don’t abandon your habit building goal.
This happened to me today. I was on a solid streak of taking my personal video everyday this month, and by chance I missed yesterday. After that, I felt bad and demotivated.
How awesome and motivating would it be if I hadn’t missed any day this month?
But that doesn’t matter. If I keep dwelling on perfection — to not miss any day — I’ll start thinking about starting this again another month and not missing any day. And then, I’ll leave my building habit for this month.
After that, I’ll actually never start again. The chances are pretty low because I’m already demotivated.
It’s the point where you give up your habit building goal. Just don’t give up because you missed a single day.
Instead of feeling bad about missing a day, continue taking videos without stressing much on the fact that you missed a day. Your main goal should be to establish habit, not freak out after you miss a day.
This happens while you try establishing any habit. Be it, writing, reading, eating healthy, quitting drugs, meditating, speaking, staying fit, running, etc.
Everyone forgets, so don’t make it a big deal. Only people who don’t stress over the fact that they forgot a day will move forward with their habit building goal.
Some part of me opposes against using habit building apps because it’s mainly focused on habit building chain. If you miss a day, all your progress will fall down. You’ll see it. And then you feel extremely demotivated because you have to start from zero.
Tracking habits is fine, but taking streak too seriously might not help you in the long run if you feel demotivated every time you miss a day.
Missing a day while building new habits is okay. Don’t take it too seriously, don’t get demotivated, just keep going!
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