Challenge the Rut

So, two weeks and I have maintained a blog per working day. Yay me.

The question is, why? Why have I suddenly gone from one blog per week to one per day. I don’t need the coverage or the readers – they have all been more than happy with one per week. I certainly don’t need the extra work or hassle that comes with generating more interesting (ish) content.

The reason was to challenge myself and push myself out of a rut I was in with my blogging. For about 3 years I have posted one blog per week, usually on a Monday. This was normally a well thought out piece of writing that was either an expression of a new idea I had had or something that I felt would be of interest and use to my readers. However, the routine was beginning to kill the creativity. I was binning ideas because it was the wrong day for them or because new ones were taking their place too fast.I was too set on this idea of one per week.

So I set my challenge. Allow all those ideas out as and when they come to me. I climbed out of my rut. Now, I will just blog as and when ideas come to me. With luck they will be interesting. This also means that I can work on deeper ones in the background without feeling I have to blog about them immediately – as other smaller ideas will be there in the mean time.

I have won my personal challenge and have learned from it. I don’t need the routine as much as I need the outlet.

We all need to challenge ourselves, otherwise we get stuck and often realise too late to change it. Challenge yourself daily, after all that is what you are asking of most people in a gamified system – so apply it to yourself. It doesn’t have to be a big challenge. It may just be to put the post where your wife has been asking you to put it for months. It could be to read two stories to your children at night. It may be to finally start writing a blog.

What ever it is, when you have completed your challenge congratulate yourself. I didn’t realise how important that was until I took part in BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits week. Say out load – “well done me”. It really does help cement the feeling of achievement.

 

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