A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how “getting back on the horse” is one of the most important things we can do to achieve our goals.
This was fresh off of my 18 consecutive days of meditation coming to an abrupt end.
Well, I got back on that horse, hit another 15-day streak, only to have it end again last Friday.
But I didn’t dwell on it.
In fact, it was easier to start again the second time around, perhaps because I had become acclimated to the originally perceived failure.
Last week I started reading a book that confirmed how important it is for us to defy our inherent perfectionism.
i.e. when the streak ends, just start a new one.
It’s called Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, and I can already tell it will go down as an all-time favorite.
At the beginning of the book the author, Jon Acuff, suggests that the only true failures are the habits and goals we never return to after starting.
You know, the New Years Resolutions that end the second week of January.
“Reject the idea that day after perfect means you’ve failed”, he writes.
And that stuff we say we don’t have time to do?
Well, it’s because we’re trying to do too much. 10 pounds of sugar in a 5 pound bag…remember?
“Cut your goals in half” is the lesson of the entire second chapter, and that’s what I immediately went to do when reviewing the goals I haven’t come close to achieving in the first half of this year.
He also proposes that we give up on trying to do the things we suck at or simply don’t want to be doing.
“Joyless goals fail”
There should be purpose and fun in the things that we are actively pursuing, and as time gets more limited, this is really something I want to make sure I’m living by.
“Joyless goals fail”
As I crank out the rest of the blog post, I am also having an honest conversation with myself (in my head of course) about the purpose of my personal blogging.
Is there enough joy? Or is it simply a chore?
Well, I haven’t published anything in 4 days, which I could have easily shaped as a failure.
However, I’m back on the horse. My fingers are moving, even if there isn’t necessarily any cohesion through the words I’m writing.
And the joy I get from this is knowing that I can have a somewhat organized place for me to refer back to the thoughts that I have a hard time organizing.
I’m not striving for perfection; I’d rather have joy.
I honestly don’t even know if that was an appropriate use of a semicolon, but trying to figure that out will suck the joy out of this daily writing habit I’m trying to develop.
So I’m starting this week with the mindset of making my unachieved goals 1) halved and 2) fun.
If I can remind myself of these important facets, I think it will be a whole lot easier to get where I want to go.