A Wren Says

In the past, when I was diligent in keeping up with my habits, I didn’t miss a day. More recently, I found that I have been missing a lot of days. I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so much more “lazy” now. It was especially frustrating because I knew I had done better in the past, so I was definitely capable. Looking back, I realized the difference is that my current approach is nowhere near as gratifying.

Looking back to when I first got serious about building my habits, my strategy included the extra motivation of a prize. I had bigger prizes that I would award myself with after a long string of successful days, but there were little moments as well. Something as small as physically checking off a list and adding up the days. Having a visual representation of how I was doing helped me stay on track and try to keep the streak alive. Or as I have mentioned previously mentioned, just giving myself a gummy worm for showing up to work helped me bust out of the “I don’t feel like it” concrete. Or letting myself do a celebration dance. Or letting myself get the fancy coffee drink before I sat down to get to work. All of those little things gave me the satisfaction I needed quickly in the moment to stay in it for the bigger prize down the road.

I’m going to be rethinking my current strategy to make sure it resonates with my needs now. What can I do to give myself a little gratification now to keep myself on track with my goals?