The Off Days (JHP Day 17)

Hitting the halfway milestone with this 30 day writing challenge gave me a good chance to think about the progress I’ve made so far. It’s a lot easier for me now to write on this blog - get through the process of coming up with an idea, curating content around it and adding my personal voice.

It’s also made me realise the effort that goes into doing it daily. I’ve really valued the lessons and insights I got, and I enjoy every post I make, though in terms of discipline I’ve noticed a drop, especially today.

I definitely mean to continue blogging after this challenge, but will probably make the posts less frequent, somewhere around twice a week - it gives me time to ruminate on the insights I have, and keeps my schedule a little more free, but let’s me stay consistent with the habit at the same time.

Regardless, the blogging continues for these last 13 days :)

When Motivation Isn't Enough

This post is about the off days. Those days after you start the habit of doing something, just after the initial highs of motivation and inspiration have faded, and you’re left with nothing more than your own discipline to keep going at it.

It’s really tough, to build a new routine. Especially when you’re already so used to old ones.

Which I think is why it’s so necessary to include a post like this in the JHP challenge. A post about the times when you really can’t get yourself to do what you want to do, and you feel like you've hit a brick wall.

In a world that’s largely driven by productivity and efficiency, like I mentioned in my last post - it can often feel like you have to constantly be moving and achieving to stay afloat (at least for me).

The push to take action is massive, and I think it can lead a lot of us down this rat race of chasing the next thing over and over until we lose the will to go on. Hence the coining of terms like toxic productivity.

I rediscovered this animation that I originally watched a couple years ago, which really hammered home for me that idea of the hedonic treadmill, and the way in which we all often get caught up in the cycle of life, starting to depend on things for our happiness.

When I usually draft my posts, it’s at my desk, on my laptop, with a fan running in the background to keep me cool, and primed to be in a flow state for at least an hour at a time.

I’m writing this one horizontally - in my notes app, from the comfort of my bed. (It feels pretty good to be honest).

The truth is, you don’t always need to be charging forward. If anything, you shouldn’t be. To reach balance in your life you have to take a step back from time to time. Not only to reassess the direction that you’re headed in, but to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

Life is short enough, but to treat it like a race where you have to beat the clock, causes you to lose meaning for the beauty of it.

I think I fell into that pitfall while writing a previous post on the idea of investment - and how precious our time really is.

I like to use the metaphor of a piece of music for it - you’d think it strange if your favourite classical piece was played at 3 or 5 times the speed it usually is, because the pianist or the orchestra wanted to get through their sheet music as fast as they could. The same applies for life.

The most peaceful and contentment-filled moments are reached from embracing each moment as it comes - not wanting it to arrive faster or slower.

That's it. That's the post.

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