What is the Streak: How to Form a Habit That Sticks
It’s a popular piece of productivity urban legend shared by Brad Isaacs, popularized by LifeHacker, and now found in every habit-formation book known to man. (I’ve read some version of the story in three books in the last year alone.) Isaacs, a young comedian working the open-mic scene, bumped into Jerry Seinfeld and asked him for the recipe to his secret sauce. How’d he become a better comedian? “Write jokes every day,” Seinfeld said, but he didn’t stop there. He offered Isaacs some productivity gold:
“He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”
This is why I published my piece yesterday evening. I’ve been writing every day (and publishing every weekday) for months, and breaking the chain was not an option, even if it meant staying into the stretch hours to crank out something worth publishing. The streak—it was motivation enough.
In the coming days, I’m hoping to take hold of this sort of streak theory in a new way of limited application. I’ve strayed from poetry over the last year, much to my chagrin. I’ve struggled to nail pieces down in the midst of so much other writing. Poetry, though, stretches me creatively and causes me to think in images and metaphors. It stretches my brain. So, beginning this Friday, I’m pushing into a new sort of streak. Each Friday, I’ll drop a new poem here. I hope those poems will relate to our examination themes, but the Muse might take me on a tangent on occasion. In any event, I hope you’ll join me.
What’s the streak you’d like to create? Is it a creative habit like writing every day? Maybe it’s a healthy habit like working out or drinking enough water throughout the week. Do you want to create better spiritual habits, like carving out spaces for silence and solitude? Is the habit a one-day-a-week sort of thing, like scratching out poems on Fridays? Set a goal, create a calendar system, and start logging your streak. See what happens.
***THE BOOK IS HERE! ORDER AND FORWARD***
THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.
Daily Creation: Keep a Streak Alive
The unexpected morning call. The throw-together wardrobe. The pre-rush-hour rush hour. The hustle. The client fire drill. The chance meeting with the old-timer in the coffee shop when all you want is a cup of joe. The next client fire drill. Another rush. Another hustle. The skipped lunch, skipped meditation, skipped afternoon walk around the building. The fire and grind of a burned down day.
Welcome to January 14, 2020.
Some days run hot, threaten to overheat on the highway of life. That’s been my day, which is why I’m dropping this dime closer to 5:00 p.m. than 5:00 a.m. Sure, the gurus tell you the goal of these days may be survival and If you lose your routine every now and then have a little grace. (After all, mama said there’ll be days like this). But still, even when the routine breaks before the cock crows once, isn’t it worth pursuing your one, most important, highest-value goal?
This evening, I’m writing off-routine because I believe there are some streaks worth keeping alive. The weekday piece, my singular act of creativity—it’s my One Streak. Today, I bird-dogged it down as the sun set out my office window. Sometimes that’s what it takes.
Do you have One Streak you wouldn’t want to break? (And no, brushing your teeth doesn’t count.)
***THE BOOK IS HERE! ORDER AND FORWARD***
THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.
A Public Service Announcement: Wake Up.
Today, I’m taking a brief hiatus from our daily examinations to drop a PSA and invite you to a very important group. Let’s call it The Group of Waking Up.
The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing The Divine Love That Orders a Life released this week! It’s been such an incredible launch week. At one point, the Little Book That Could was ranked #248 of ALL BOOKS ON AMAZON! Now, I don’t get all wrapped up in figures and numbers (or do I?), but this is an incredible accomplishment, and there’s no way I could have done this without you all.
Now we’re into the nitty-gritty phase: Spreading the word about the book. How does that start? Today I’m asking for two things.
If you’ve read the book, make your way to Amazon and leave a review on The Book Of Waking Up. (And I suppose if you haven’t picked up a copy, grab one while you’re there? So, maybe that’s 2 things.) Reviews are critical to boosting discoverability, so will you help me today?
If you’d like to talk all things The Book of Waking Up and learn how you can spread the word, join The Group of Waking Up on Facebook. There, we’ll talk all things The Book of Waking Up. I’ll take all questions, including questions about attachment, addiction, and the writing process. I might also share my favorite movies of 2020 if you ask just right.
Thanks again for reading and sharing about my new work! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it. Come back tomorrow, where we’ll continue practicing the examined life.
Waking Routines: What's Yours?
A good man, a downright prince of a gentleman I’m pleased to call uncle, makes his home in South Louisiana, the state where angels and saints take up residence. He’s a man of definitive tastes: an andouille connoisseur; an unabashed Tiger fan; a weekend boat captain who knows his way around the South Louisiana…
Read MoreWhat is the Shape of Your Waking (This is Not a Metaphor)
What is the shape of your waking, your morning? Do you roll out of bed after slapping the snooze button three times, only six hours of rest under your belt? Do you reach for the coffee to wake from perpetual sleep deprivation? Do you sit in your chair, static as a log, waiting till the caffeine kicks in so you can slog through another day? Do you scroll endlessly on your phone, using the blue light to wake you?
What is the shape of your waking, your morning?
It’s a simple question, one I’m asking you to examine today because your morning sets so much of the tone of your day. I’m convinced of it. So, grab a pen and paper, and write a thumbnail sketch of your average morning. Then ask yourself, Does my morning set me up to live awake throughout the rest of the day?
Come back tomorrow, as we consider how waking leads to waking.
***THE BOOK IS HERE! ORDER AND FORWARD***
THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.
Starting Brushfires: The Book of Waking Up
Yesterday, The Book of Waking Up left the warehouse and made its way to your doors. And though I believed in this book, I had no idea it’d resonate the way it has. So, thank you for investing in this project, a project that was a labor of love years in the making.
Read MoreWake Up to a New Book! (Come celebrate with me.)
If my daily writing has been characterized by anything, it’s been the theme of waking. Waking from our addictions, habits, and attachments. Waking to the Divine Love that might reorder our lives. All that writing has led to today, the day The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Love that Reorders a Life releases!
Read MoreIt's Not Enough to Quit. Replace Vice With Ritual.
In the throes of a twenty-year affair with coffee, I wanted to make a change. A morning half-pot habit left me feeling jittery, dehydrated, and somewhat bombastic, as my coworkers can attest. I wanted to make a change, wanted to start my day with less coffee (which is not to say no coffee) and more water.
I decided I’d decouple my coffee habit from waking. Instead…
Read MoreFreeing Up Willpower: A Dry January Invitation
As I wrote yesterday, we’ve entered into Dry January, a month used by many to reset drinking habits. Maybe you’re not prone to overdrinking. Maybe you’re using it like I am, to reset an attachment to some other vice (like shopping, eating sugar, porn use, or whatever). But whether you are are aren’t participating in Dry January, have you considered the power of abstinence—even for a season? Have you thought about the benefits abstinence brings?
If you buy one book this Dry January, buy my newest release, The Book of Waking Up. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish). If you buy two books, buy The Book of Waking Up and Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin’s work on making and breaking habits. In her offering, Rubin uses expert storytelling, research, and strategic insights to give the reader a habit-making and habit-breaking playbook. It’s a book that is both packed with insight and immanently readable. In discussing abstinence from any vice (LaMar’s Donuts being her example), she writes:
“Because habit formation often requires us to relinquish something we want, a constant challenge is: Ho can I deprive myself of something without feeling deprived? … I realized that one way to deprive myself without creating a feeling of deprivation is to deprive myself totally. Weirdly, when I deprive myself altogether, I feel as though I haven’t deprived myself at all. When we Abstainers deprive ourselves totally, we conserve energy and willpower, because there are no decisions to make and no self-control to muster.”
Consider Rubin’s advice. By taking something off the menu, even if only for a month, doesn’t it free up mental energy. Doesn’t it total deprivation remove the willpower required for moderation. (After all, if you remove all potato chips from the menu, you don’t have to stop yourself short of eating the entire bag once you tear into it.) This reserved mental energy and willpower—couldn’t it be better spent in other areas of your life?
***TODAY’S TASK: ORDER AND FORWARD***
THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launches in just a few short weeks and IT’S TIME TO ORDER YOUR COPY. Today:
1. Order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever good books are sold; and,
2. Forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.
Dry January: Are You Ready to Wake Up?
It is the second day of a new decade, a day marking the transition from resolution to action. As E.E. Cummings might say, this is the day for “tasting, touching, seeing, breathing, any….” This Day of Doing begs a simple question: How will you craft the next ten years of your lives? Will you do it with intention?
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