“A brilliant idea is like a baby in a mother’s womb. You need to bring it out in the world, nurture it, feed it, grow it, till it becomes big enough to take care of itself. If you leave it at the stage of an idea itself, it is as good as non existent.” ― Manoj Arora, From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom

No Vacation for Parents

Accepting the fact that if a new habit is to survive, there is no way around the nuisance of daily practice. Later on, when well established, it can be done less frequently and with more depth. Side note: think of the fun ways of misinterpreting this statement. Anyway, pick your choice of youngling, human, dog or plant; in the beginning it is a full time job making sure it survives. Learning and thriving comes after survival is sure.

So if anyone (hello lazy self) is wrestling with the lack of progress after mere 12 days of practicing, remember this is the survival phase. Growth is dreadfully slow and can be only seen in hindsight, after you put in the hours.

That’s it for day 12. I showed up. I wrote. One more day where I didn’t kill this writing habit.

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.” – Octavia Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories

Not Feeling Like It

This is it. When starting any new habit, the motivation will turn as sure as death. The critic’s voice becomes loud and threatens to drown all other voices.

Critic: “This adds no value to anyone’s life.”

Critic: “There is no acutal subject here but meandering thoughts with no coherent design or aim.”

Critic: “No one will ever read this.”

Fighting and arguing the critic only serves to validate and encourage her. The internal fighting only leads to more agitation and eventual resignation. But the critic is not I. She is separate from me, and to enforce that idea, I will give her a body and a name. She’s an annoyingly pink little monster that follows me around and finds fault with all I do. Her face is so adorable it is hard to get angry at. The key to calming her down is to acknowledge her without necessarily agreeing. Her name is Katinka.

Me: “Thank you Katinka for your input. These statements are true but they are irrelevant in this situation.”

Me: “I am establishing a writing habit. Content and value will come later.”

Me: “Do you have any suggestions about establishing this habit?”

Katinka: silence.

“A hair here, a hair there, and soon you have a beard” – Lebanese volk saying.

Differentiating the Goal from the Habit

Comprehending that the effort to establish a habit does not bring one quickly to the goal is no easy task. Writing a couple of sentences each day will not make me a writer; it will, however, establish a writing habit. I remind myself of this fact every day and yet I seem to forget it again in the morning.

We were raised to desire great goals, not to establish good habits.