Becoming

Earlier this week, as I stared at my calendar that holds my monthly ambitions, I realized I had failed at my writing goals. Just like a New Year's Resolution forgotten by February, I had just let it slip. I was doing so well with exercise and devoting more time to work, that it was easy to feel like I was succeeding. Truthfully though, I was doing the bare minimum to get this newsletter out and letting the thing that was most important to me - working on my book - slip through the cracks.

Balance, is not something that comes easy for me. Once I get into something, my addictive personality takes over and I just want to keep doing it. Unfortunately, that means the time I have before and after work ends up being spent on doing one thing really well and running out of time for anything else. But this is where the magic of monthly goals come in. Since I have already developed the habit of writing down new goals each month, I don't need to wait until next year to set a new one or try it a different way. I can erase that board and try again right now.

Just because I failed the last couple weeks, doesn't mean I have to keep failing the next couple weeks.

I’m telling you this because most of the time in life we don't see the weeks of failure. We only see the end product. We see what someone has turned into, and we miss the practice and mistakes they went through to get there. In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth says, "nobody wants to show you the hours and hours of becoming. They'd rather show the highlight of what they've become."

That statement is so true and it's what makes becoming so hard. We think we're in it alone. We think everyone else is doing so well and we're the only one struggling. It's why I like to write and post about my becoming. I want you to see the failure. I want you to know the effort behind any success. I want you to fail with me so you can succeed with me too.

A few days ago, (or at least it will be a few days by the time this is emailed to you), I decided to do a 15-day challenge for myself. In an effort to build up better writing habits and spending my free time in a more well-balanced way, I'm going to do 15 days of at least 15 minutes each of cardio, yoga, and writing. That's my goal. It's what I need right now. What do you need?

Try this with me: Think about the person you want to become and then figure out how you need to spend your hours of becoming to get there. If you want some accountability, respond to this email and tell me what you're doing for the next 15 days or follow my Instagram stories to get some daily reminders. Just the act of writing down a goal or telling someone about it greatly increases the chances of it succeeding. You were never meant to do this alone. So don’t.