I have started this 90-day challenge and have failed to do most of it immediately. The next day I woke up hours late and had no motivation to do anything. Most days, I would; wake up 9 or 10 ish…, then working evenings, staying up late to wind down, and doing it all over. Within the first week, the only thing I consistently had done was nothing. I have not kept up with exercise, reading, or writing this blog. It feels impossible to do anything around work; this is due to lousy time management skills on my part. I want to be super motivated and do everything with ease, but it never lasts long.
Motivation is not a factor when it comes to any of this. Motivation is fickle at best. I have learned first hand you will not accomplish things most of the time if you wait for motivation. You must force yourself to get things done. There will always be a million and one reasons you don’t want to do something or “should” do something else. It comes down to here is the habit, and I need to do it now before it does not happen. That is a daily choice to make new habits. You must be consistent; otherwise, the practice will fade away.
Consistency being the most crucial thing in making new habits means you can’t wait for the motivation to do something. Whatever it is, you may have motivation for the first few days, but eventually, it won’t be there. You may skip a day and have a hard time getting back to doing it or just had a long day or a hard time sleeping and not feel like it. My experiences tend to go this way; one day turns into two, then a week, and so on. It is a central idea in most dialogue that is in the realm of self-change or growth. The unfortunate fact is I am terrible at being consistent. I find it very hard to balance retail work life with a personal life. I always feel like I am scrambling my life around my work schedule, and I never feel like I have enough time. I know part of it is my atrocious time management skills.
Creating new habits to replace the old habits is much easier for some people than others. I am absolutely one of the people who find this challenging. That is an excuse to stop but a reason to keep trying. Reorganizing and starting over seems incredibly tedious, but the only way to make a positive change in yourself or anywhere else is to persevere. I am not sure who said this, but “you haven’t failed till you quit trying.” Instead of quitting and just carrying on the same old way, it’s time to reorganize and work on the weaker areas; for me, it is essentially time management. Honestly, I don’t have an answer for, other than the apparent stick to a schedule. I am looking into scheduling and productivity and trying different ways that look good to me if I have to mix and match strategies. Time management might end up being its own blog or series.
SunDry Journal 