I’m writing this short newsletter for two reasons:
Reason #1 is to protect my habit of writing and publishing weekly.
And it’s been almost 3 weeks since my last letter. But not all is lost.
As I shared in my previous series on consistency, that:
Consistency doesn’t mean ‘never falling off’ but rather getting back on track each time we do fall off. And working to do so more quickly and easily over time… turning re-starting into a habit.
So on that front, I am now successful, having sent this out. I got back on the momentum train and logged another comeback win. As a result, I am that much more confident that I’m getting better and I can get back on track even more easily next time I fall off.
Reason #2 is to share with you something that can help you in your own life: a near-real-time, real-life example of how you can apply some of the rules I shared in my prior letters on making consistency (or restarting) easier.
My go-to rule that always works for me is “Rule #1: Make Re(Starting) Ridiculously Easy.” How did I do this today:
1) I decided to send out an imperfect letter.
2) I gave myself 30 minutes with a timer instead of the usual 20-25 hours that it usually takes me for a full, high-quality (in my opinion) newsletter. I’m currently 23 minutes in, so I'd better pick up the pace.
3) Target 500 words instead of my usual 1200-1500 words.
4) Only editing read-through. Trust that it makes enough sense to add value and that Grammarly picked up all the major spelling and grammar mistakes from writing at the speed of thought. If not, so be it. YOLO.
5) Skip adding any pictures or doing a voice recording.
The second rule I applied with lethal effectiveness was “Rule #3: Win the 1-Second Battle against the mind.” Once the idea hit me to restart my consistency with a 30 min blitz-letter, I sat down immediately, set the timer, and started writing. I didn’t give my mind the tiniest chance to mount an argument. I killed the monster while it was still small.
I can literally hear my mind screaming in the background that this is a bad idea, that we need more time, that “blah blah blah”… but I’m literally moving so fast that those thoughts can’t catch up to me and affect me.
Finally, I combined “Rule #4: Lock in Consistency Before Intensity” and “Rule #8: Skip the Guilt Tax”. As I’m writing this, my 30-minute timer went off. I’m going to give myself another 5 minutes to finish this idea and click send. Game on!
One of the things that got in the way of sending a letter sooner was that I chose a topic that was very complex, and in retrospect, I feel like I bit off more than I could chew. I’ve probably written over 20,000 words in the past 3 weeks on that topic, and I’m sitting with three almost ready to publish newsletters.
But something was holding me back from sending. And each time I tried to wrap up a letter, I’d end up adding a whole bunch of paragraphs to it. Perfectionism at its finest.
Looking back, I realized I was putting too much pressure on myself to match my level of quality from the previous series, and this is what kept me stuck.
So I remembered that consistency matters more than intensity (or quality) as a foundation, and did a total pivot with writing a completely different newsletter quickly and easily so that I could:
Keep the main thing the main thing. Consistency is king and queen.
Part of this was remembering that feeling “fear” of not being perfect and “guilt” that I should’ve done better and written a good piece each week… isn’t helpful. That mental clutter only makes restarting harder.
In the big picture, five years from now, with 250 weekly newsletters under my belt, if this newsletter ends up being crappy, it doesn’t matter all that much.
What will matter, though, is if in five years, I’ve only written 5 or 10 newsletters or given up completely because I held myself back by letting unempowering emotions boss me around.
And that’s a wrap.
Hope you enjoyed this blitz-letter.
And now I must apologize as French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal did in 1657:
Please forgive the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short(er) one.
The final count came in at around 850 words in 70 minutes from idea to pressing ‘send’… with a side of sore finger tips and smoke coming out of my keyboard. A bit above target, but ‘done’ nevertheless.
I know that brevity requires more time, thought, and editing than simply letting thoughts flow onto the page, but as I stated at the start, my purpose was to:
1) Reset my habit of publishing a letter weekly to get back into momentum.
2) And to give you a real-time, real-life implementation example of consistency or the ‘art of the re-start’.
So in those regards, mission accomplished.
Until next time.
Be all you can be.
Ovi.
