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  • #390 Make the daily practice easy

    The trick to successful habit-building: make daily practice easy.

    We often do the opposite: we make weekly practice hard.

    If I tell myself I’m going to post one long blog post every week, I’ll find a million reasons not to write for the first six days until I have no choice but to write.

    But if I tell myself I will post daily, the longest I can procrastinate is… 12 hours?

    And after a week, I’ve practiced my publishing habit 7 times.

    So it goes for meditation, yoga, running, and any skill or habit.

    Make the daily practice easy.

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    #99 Why bother to journal?

    Stream Of Consciousness writing isn’t about what you write. It’s about the very fact that you’re writing.

    Nobody cares about the words on the pages. Nobody will read them anyway. Neither should you.

    This is not a novel. This is not a love song. This is not a poem. This is but an externalization of your mind’s chatter. Ugly, pretty, insightful, bland. It doesn’t matter.

    There’s no great work. Nor is there any bad work. No high standards, no judgment. Nothing but what flows out of your mind.

    So if none of it matters… why bother to write Stream of Consciousness?

    Because it forces you to slow down.

    Because it forces you to pay attention to what’s on your mind.

    Because it forces you to listen to the way you talk to yourself.

    Because it helps you get all the overwhelming thoughts and worries out of your system.

    Because it helps you gain clarity.

    And because sometimes, insights emerge. Not necessarily in the words on the page. But due to the fact that you’re writing the words on the page.

    Stream Of Consciousness journaling is writing. Venting. Self-therapy. Problem-solving. Meditation. Goal-setting. Creative liberation. And anything else you want it to be.

    Because you have all of that in you already – if only you’d re-learn to listen.

    And listening to yourself, it turns out, is much easier when you put it all on the page.

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    #82 Choice Inflection and New Defaults

    Once upon a time, I consciously chose to brush my teeth every day, until brushing my teeth became my new default. Now the conscious choice I have to make is NOT brushing my teeth.

    Once upon a time, during a pandemic, we consciously chose to wear face masks, until wearing face masks became the new default. Then the conscious choice we had to make was NOT wearing the face mask anymore.

    Once upon a time, I consciously chose to write every day, until writing became my new default. Now the conscious choice I have to make is NOT writing.

    Where else could I use a new default?

    Choice inflection.

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