To begin a habit, or to break it, it starts with one. One day to walk around the block, or to read a chapter from a book, or to put the phone in the drawer during dinner, or to compliment someone instead of complain. For some people, that first time is the hardest. For others, the second time is where the struggle comes in. And that’s if everything inside and outside of us is going the way we want, because managing habits is tricky.
Yesterday I had two wins. The first, I wrote for about two hours with a writing group via Zoom. I didn’t know what to expect. They chatted for a few minutes, then the one with the timer declared we had an hour. Everyone turned off their video and muted themselves… and I wrote for fifty minutes. I cleaned up my lunch dishes, refilled my water glass, and when I came back, everyone had their video up and were again unmuted. Another few minutes of chatting, then we went again for an hour sprint. After that, I had to leave, so said goodbye in the chat and clicked out of the meeting.
I learned that 1) I can still write (my movie screen was engaged!), 2) the muse hadn’t left me, 3) even via Zoom it was good to share creative space with other writers. After about two hours, I had written two thousand words. Guess I’m a little rusty.
Today, I met two people—one I know, the other is her neighbor—at a local library. I was late, so when I arrived, both were engaged in their writing projects. We chatted for a few minutes, then I pulled out my spiral and wrote. After an hour, I took my sandwich to the cafe area and had lunch. When I returned to our table, I wrote for another half-hour. Then we all left. I didn’t bring my computer, or I would have been tempted to mess around instead of getting words down. So, with only my spiral, I can mark day two in my habit creation of writing daily.
Now that I’ve written two days in a row, can I keep the streak going? Can I fulfill my goal of writing daily? I’ll report back in next week’s blog and let you know. Is there a habit you want to start or stop? Is it harder on the first day or the second?
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