#13 — There is a grey area between success and failure

Almost three weeks into the challenge of writing daily.

I’ve already failed because I skipped two days. I’ve failed to meet the metric connected to the challenge. It’s literally called Ship30for30 with 30 meaning the amount of consecutive days of writing and publishing. But I haven’t failed the reason why I took the challenge. Writing for the sake of writing. Overcoming over-editing, over-thinking and falling out of practice. Learning from people doing the same challenge. Meeting new people and sharing knowledge. Finding out what I like to write about and what my writing style is.

It is easy to fall into the trap of using a hard metric to define failure and success. The point of the metric is to keep track, more so to keep you ON track. Don’t forget the grey area between failure and success. The area where growth and collateral opportunities exist. The opportunities that arise because you create them for yourself. In the Western world we call this serendipity. I’m a big fan of consistency. It only happens too often that in that small moment when we are not consistent, where you ‘skip a day’, we fail to meet an arbitrary metric and therefore declare the whole experiment a failure. Luckily, I’ve found someone to teach me how to not be unnecessary tough on myself. Remember why you started in the first place. This applies to everything, from entrepreneurship, losing weight, creating art, investing, you name it. Keep working towards your goals. Consistency isn’t showing up every time no matter what. It’s okay to not show up sometimes. Rearranging priorities when needed is a strength.

Consistency is keeping at it for a longer period of time. Show up when you need to, it’s half the work.

Nothing is a straight line, everything moves in ups and downs.