Daily Habits: Helpful or Stressful?
I was challenged to produce a piece of content every day in 2021. I started early on December 30 to get back in the swing of daily blogging as I have not blogged in several years. It felt great to be “back in the saddle”. I wrote again the next day (NYE).
Then… nothing. January 1st came and I was so hung over from the festivities (not literally hung over as I didn’t drink but just exhausted from a late night) that I didn’t get on my computer at all. January 1st rolled into the 2nd and a similar scenario.
Daily habits/goals such as producing a blog post every day can be a great challenge and a tool for self-development. It creates discipline and routine. I’ve accomplished many such daily challenges in the past and loved it. I’ve done National Novel Writing Month four years in a row. I’ve trained for 5K races. I’ve blogged for 100 consecutive days. I’ve done 30 day reading challenges. I know the power of a daily habit.
As a full-time employee and a mother, these daily challenges prove a bit more… challenging to accomplish than they used to pre-kids. However, if I never set the goal I wouldn’t have written any posts by now.
As I continue to blog and re-create this daily habit it will be something I love. But the day it gets stressful and I’m writing a blog post at 11:55pm just to avoid breaking my streak, the bragging rights of the streak become more important than the habit itself. If that’s the case I feel like I would be losing the heart of the goal — the reason I set the goal in the first place.
Balance.
