pattern – Sarah K Peck

If you’re not getting the results you want, try something new.

If the way you’re currently working isn’t getting the results you want, you either need to stay the course a little bit longer (see: The Dip, or “Follow One Course Until Successful”), or you need to try a new way of working.

If the exercise routine isn’t getting you the results that you want, you might need a new exercise routine.

If your pattern of writing isn’t giving you the results you want, you might need to try new systems.

If working alone isn’t getting you to your highest self, perhaps working alongside other people or starting a mastermind accountability group would change things.

Change it up when it’s not working.

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What’s your routine? What are your habits and ways of being? Leave a note in the comments below, or write a post about your own routine.

This post is part of the Monthly Writing Prompts — check out October’s theme, here or get the monthly writing prompts in your inbox by signing up for the newsletter, here.

I woke up with a start at 11:30pm on Saturday night. I didn’t post anything today!

I had forgotten to post: so many things swept up to take hold of the day. New York got a blizzard with 22 inches of snow. Alex and I hiked through it to take a 16-hour weekend class on birthing, massage, postpartum, and newborn care. My head was full. My feet were tired.

I didn’t write.

So began the conundrum:

Lying in bed, do I get up and rush to the computer? Do I stay up late, disrupt my routine, insist that the deadline is more important than all else?

Or—and I think arguably this is harder for me—do I find a way to relax into the moment, let it go, and begin anew the next day?

I decided to try to skip posting. My head frantically came up with things to write and say while I was in bed. I exhaled and said, tomorrow. Tomorrow. We can begin again tomorrow.

It is okay to be imperfect.

The challenge for me, and I don’t know how many other people feel this way as well, is not letting one lapse cloud and cluster my judgment. Would missing a day throw me off kilter? Would I backslide and decide that not writing was easier, and I’d just skip a few days, who cared?

The next day, the practice was as follows: rise and wake, and begin again. Every day, we begin again.

Don’t frantically try to “catch up” and write the past essays, or write through every single prompt. Start today, with one essay, with one post.

Every day is a new day.

Here we are.

We begin, again.

Tag: pattern

Change It Up

Missing A Day