Unintentional Turned Intentional Mid-Summer Break
The tough thing about consistency is that eventually you will miss a day. Life will have its moments where something else pulls your attention. So, when the inevitable happens, it’s what you do the next day that matters. Do you get back to your routine? Or do you let one missed day become two, then maybe three. When the time comes that you lose your focus, how inconsistent do you let yourself become?
For two years of my publish something every Tuesday commitment to myself, I was pretty darn reliable. It’s something I’m proud of. I made a decision three years ago that I wanted to find my way back to writing, and I did. Every now and then I was running a day or two late. But I can confidently say that I shared one hundred-plus pieces of writing during those 104 weeks.
Then these past four months happened. It is and has been a time period when most of my creative energy is spent elsewhere, away from writing. At first I was doing okay, sticking to my routine. I might have been publishing more often on Thursdays than Tuesdays. But I was still mostly meeting my goal of creating something new each week, and putting it into the universe.
Early on in the summer I remember missing a week. I remember how disappointed I was in myself that I hadn’t made time to write and get something out there. It was during that week that I wondered if I should give myself a month off. Schedule a break from my routine so I could focus on something else for a while without feeling inconsistent. But then I got back on track the next week and thought I could handle it all.
It was only a few weeks after that when I missed another week. And then I spent the next five days promising myself that I would publish something that day, even though it would be late. I broke my promise to myself every single day, again and again. It look me until late Sunday to accept that I’d be better off focusing on the week ahead than trying to catch up.
But then it was suddenly Tuesday again. Tuesday became Wednesday, and I still hadn’t made time to write. One missed week turned into two. And that’s when I revisited the idea of a short break. It seemed necessary, so I decided that four weeks off would give me a chance to get back on track. I thought I’d even be able to write a few extra pieces and have them in stock.
As the first Tuesday after my break sped closer, I got excited. I had at least two starts of new pieces, and I was certain I’d finish one by my deadline. But I didn’t. Four weeks turned to five, then six and now nearly seven. Until today, I still had nothing to share and barely anything new written. Those two pieces are sitting on my desktop, untouched and maybe set aside for good.
The thing is, we can’t help that life gets busy sometimes. Busy to the point where you need to set something down for a while. Where you need to take a break from something before you crash and drop everything. So you choose. You choose something and you hope you make the right call for future you. For me, writing was the only call. It was the only thing I felt I could temporarily walk away from without losing sight of my directions.
You see, writing isn’t something I’ve ever set down since picking it back up three years ago. Three years ago I started slow, but found a way to be consistent. And then I wrote every day for a while before figuring out what would need to come next. At that point I had picked up a little more to do in each day. So that’s when I decided I could consistently maintain writing once or twice a week.
It worked for a long time. Until it didn’t. Until a break from something became necessary, and I decided it’d be writing. And now, even though I don’t suddenly have more time in my days, I’m going to make time for writing again. Because sometimes it’s nice to set something down for a while. Because sometimes you need to miss something to realize how much it matters to you.
