"I skipped a day. Now what?" (A 30-Day Creator Challenge excerpt)

This is an excerpt from the 30-Day Creator Challenge—although you can apply this mindset whenever you skip any healthy activity you're trying to make a habit out of.

But first: Do you have an online business, or do you want to start one? If so, you'll need an audience. And you can get an audience by creating valuable content consistently.

But creating content consistently is hard. Let me teach you how I've been doing it—how I've managed to write every single day since April 2018.

Go to https://creatorchallenge.com‍

‍Dear reader,

Two days ago, we talked about creating ahead of time. I challenged you to create two things in one day so that you could prepare yourself for days when it's extra difficult to find the time and energy to create something.

I hope you managed to create two things. Or, if you didn't, I hope that you'll be able to create two things in one day some day soon. But let's talk about the opposite scenario.

What do you do when you skip a day?

Don't beat yourself up.

Nobody likes it when they skip a day, but it happens. You are not "a failure" if you skip a day and your project isn't a failure either. Sometimes, we set goals and we don't meet them. That's part of life. 

The key is to respond in a healthy way. Here's a good start:

Do your best not to skip two days in a row.

Skipping two days in a row massively increases the risk that you lose the habit entirely.

For example, I have a daily meditation habit. I started this habit in late 2016, so it's been a while now. When I first started, I would sometimes skip a day because I didn't feel like meditating. It was that simple: I just didn't feel like it.

And guess what? Often, when I skipped a day, I skipped the next day too. It wasn't that I forgot to meditate, per se, but the habit wasn't strong enough yet. It took lots of willpower to sit my butt down to meditate and I simply didn't have that willpower available sometimes.

These days, my habit is much stronger. I still miss a day in my meditation practice now and then. But I haven't skipped two days in a row since those early days when I was still developing my habit. In fact, if I do miss a day, I make it a point to meditate immediately after breakfast the next day. 

And that's what I recommend you do in your daily creating practice as well. 

Skipped a day? Do your creating first thing in the morning the next day.

As we go through the day, there are so many things that can seem more urgent than creating our thing for today. By doing the work first thing in the morning, you minimize the risk that you'll come up with reasons not to do the work.

This is especially important in this early stage, when you're still developing the habit.

And let me know if you do skip a day, so I can help you get back on track.

Yours,

— Peter