The best way not to achieve something is to set it as a New Year's resolution.
First, you build up unnecessary tension to some artificially set date for something you obviously find challenging enough to put off.
Second, you're also indulging in that procrastination by giving yourself the feeling as if by setting that start date you somehow have already accomplished it...
For example, I wanted to see if I could publish 1 article a day on Medium. I joined in April and published my first article in the middle of May.
From May to September I had only published 4 to 5 articles a month, then in September one of my articles went semi viral. It was actually an article I had published months before....
Around that time I also wanted to commit myself to much more meaningful engagement. So I'm not sure if my article went viral before or after (what defines virality and the money made from such "viral" articles seems to be very subjective here on Medium).
Anyway, once the virality subsided, I went back to my usual 4-5 article publishing schedule.
Then, on the 22nd of October, for no real reason, I just picked that date to commit to publishing 1 article a day and just go all in.
Commit to studying headlines, subtitles, intros, lengths, topics, analyzing data, etc. I have treated every article I publish like I'm swinging for the fences.
As a result, I am leagues ahead of where I was.
I'm not in the habit, nor do I intend to start now, to write about Medium, or about writing, but let's say I can't imagine now in retrospect, putting off that commitment until January 1st.
Sure, I've had one or 2 slip ups since where I didn't get my 1 article a day in, but I didn't let those slip ups derail me and have pretty much stayed the course...
Had I waited till the 1st of January however, who knows if I would have continued to stay the course after those slip ups or just use them as an excuse to quit, like many do with New Year's resolutions...
"Striking while the iron is hot", commitment and momentum are the keys, not some artificial societal construct, like New Year's resolutions...
Don't mean to hijack your comment section, hope it's added some food for thought..
First, you build up unnecessary tension to some artificially set date for something you obviously find challenging enough to put off.
Second, you're also indulging in that procrastination by giving yourself the feeling almost as if by setting that start date you somehow have already accomplished it...
For example, I wanted to see if I could publish 1 article a day on Medium. I joined in April and published my first article in the middle of May.
From May to September I had only published 4 to 5 articles a month, then in September one of my articles went semi viral. It was actually an article I had published months before....
Around that time I also wanted to commit myself to much more meaningful engagement. So I'm not sure if my article went viral before or after (what defines virality and the money made from such "viral" articles seems to be very subjective here on Medium).
Anyway, once the virality subsided, I went back to my usual 4-5 article publishing schedule.
Then, on the 22nd of October, for no real reason, I just picked that date to commit to publishing 1 article a day and just go all in.
Commit to studying headlines, subtitles, intros, lengths, topics, analyzing data, etc. I have treated every article I publish like I'm swinging for the fences.
As a result, I am leagues ahead of where I was.
I'm not in the habit, nor do I intend to start now, to write about Medium or about writing, but let's say I can't imagine now in retrospect, putting off that commitment until January 1st.
Sure, I've had one or 2 slip ups since where I didn't get my 1 article a day in, but I didn't let those slip ups derail me and have pretty much stayed the course...
Had I waited till the 1st of January however, who knows if I would have continued to stay the course after those slip ups or just use them as an excuse to quit, like many do with New Year's resolutions...
"Striking while the iron is hot", commitment, momentum and not beating yourself up when you do eventually slip and just keare the keys, not some artificial societal construct, like New Year’s resolutions...
Don’t mean to hijack your comment section, hope it’s added some food for thought..
