| Disclaimer: I'm a work-in-progress like everyone else. What's written below may seem obvious to most folks here, but it still is a daily battle for me, and will likely be for the rest of my life. -- Quote: "Here’s what happens when you resolve to write every day: you soon slip up." Quote: "the brain does not necessarily distinguish between your .. abstract goal, to write a novel, and the accompanying specific plan, to write every day" Quote: "When the specific plan fails, the resulting lack of motivation infects the general goal as well" -- I'd rather address this behavior of the brain, instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Strategically, it makes more sense to simply shrug off every failed day, and trying to write again the next day, as if nothing happened. Don't even bother to reflect on it (in order to learn) - you've already absorbed some lessons subconsciously. Keep the for..loop light. Even if you've failed for the past 1000 days, why not attempt to write today? Even if you fail to write today, why not try to write again tomorrow? Taking these failures as a personal judgment ("Oh I'm a procrastinator", "Oh I'm always going to keep procrastinating and failing, what's the point?") is the real problem. Life is chaotic, stuff happens. Managing that emotional response, and simply coming back in every day and trying seems optimal. A bit like a mostly-dumb but relentless bull. What do you have to lose? The worst case is you'll fail at the goal, but the default state of any goal is failure - only by working at it do you reduce the odds of it failing. So just going back in each day and trying, and not taking failed days as personal judgments seems optimal. We tend to forgive others, but not ourselves. If a close friend of yours was failing each day but really wanted to accomplish the goal, what would you advise them? |