T.T. 17: Stop "Foolish Consistency" —> Stack Helpful Habits
I slipped up. Progress through process... schedules and goals should be ladders, NOT cages
That first post was published on January 5th — the first Thursday of this year.
Similarly, I also chose the start of 2023 as the beginning of a full year long break from drinking ANY alcohol.
I’ve now passed the six month milestone — officially OVER HALFWAY through completing that goal successfully!
Very soon after making my decision on March 22nd to move to El Salvador in August, I also quit taking adderall and antidepressants.
A little over a month later — starting on May 1st — I also quit nicotine cold turkey.
In between those two decisions to subtract “negative” habits of substance dependence, I also added a “positive” habit — daily Español lessons in the Duolingo app.
As of today, my streak for that officially reached 97 days!
It’s important to celebrate these milestones… to appreciate consistent little wins.
Over time, consistent momentum compounds with positive (or negative) interest!
The makers of Duolingo clearly understand this timeless truth. They’ve almost definitely read “Hooked” by Nir Eyal, because the app applies its insights brilliantly.
Specifically, Duolingo does a fantastic job of gamifying the learning process in synergistic alignment with people’s innate motivational psychology triggers.
The “streak freeze” feature is a subtly crucial aspect that’s worth highlighting in particular.
There actually have been a couple times when I missed my Duolingo lesson for that day… so technically speaking, my “streak” of 97 days honestly has two or three random holes relatively early on.
Fortunately, however, it gave me that chance to get back on the wagon.
Instead of shaming you for a single slip — sending your streak all the way back to zero, zilch, nada — the app encourages you with a second chance to continue your longer term momentum.
In the subtitle for this post, I mentioned that I slipped up.
Although my Duolingo streak for the month of June was 100%, my weekly Substack blogging habit was 0% — I ended up skipping every single Thoreau Thursday last month.
It wasn’t that I forgot… or even that I was too busy, honestly.
The issue was primarily a mix of procrastination and perfectionism.
I kept waiting until Thursday afternoon or later to start drafting the post… but then letting my old self-sabotaging standards get in the way.
I knew that by the time I’d finish each draft to my ideal satisfaction, it would be past midnight… no longer a Thursday.
And then the next week, I’d put even more pressure on myself to make up for the previous missed posts.
I could ramble on in much more detail… but screw it. This time, I’m just gonna go ahead and post it now!
I’ll elaborate on these highly relevant podcast clips in next week’s post — a post which I will absolutely NOT miss.