You know the saying it takes 21 days to create a habit? I can’t help but laugh at the irony.

I didn’t ship yesterday.

I woke up this morning realizing my streak had broken on day 21. I had been caught up in distractions after lamely putting off my content creation most of the day. A post-dinner phone call spiraled into reading and straight to bed, I barely even registered I had forgotten.

I knew this would happen, that there would be days I would skip. I even consciously skipped a day of yoga after 2.5 months recently. Sometimes your body just needs a break.

This was different, it didn’t feel conscious. I just…forgot.

It felt different from the conscious choice to skip that day of yoga (because omg the cramps).

As I consider the difference, I see how I have treated each of these habits I have been cultivating differently.

Yoga

I wake up. I soak in the hot tub, and after drying off I throw on a leotard and roll out my mat to do yoga.

It’s the first thing I do with my day, and it is part of an ingrained routine.  It technically happens before I even put underpants on, it’s pretty hard to miss. To skip it would mean to consciously change my morning routine in a very noticeable way.

Morning yoga is a habit I have created for myself that fits into a distinct routine.

Shipping

I find time during my day to create something. Either when I want to procrastinate client work (whoops), am struck with inspiration (lucky), or just when the lighting is nice. Sometimes it’s the last thing I do before bed, realizing I still need to ship.

Um…jeez Alexa, this is not a habit.

I was grappling with what makes these two different. Why was it so easy to forget something as important as shipping my work?

While I have been working to make shipping part of my day, I haven’t given it space in my day. Space of its own, and time where I am consistently accountable to it each and every day.

By “fitting it in” when it worked, I allowed myself to falter.

Are there habits in your life you are trying to create that you haven’t truly given space to?

Some of this is Resistance.

I dance with it all day, and it’s what leads me to put off doing this important work. Yoga is easy, I don’t have to tell anyone or have a novel idea. I don’t have to face my own fear of rejection to do yoga. I can just flail around on the mat for a few minutes and call it a day;

Shipping is different.

A saying that has been consuming me lately is discipline scales. 

Discipline scales

Felt like that deserved to be bolded.

I seriously can’t stop this saying from swimming in my head. As we approach things in our life, day after day with discipline, it gets easier. The daily yoga habit gets easier, and with that win, we can take on bigger things and succeed.

It’s allowed me to look at missing a day of shipping with a new light. This is day 22, and since 21 days did not yet create a habit (damn) I am looking at how I can bring more discipline to this challenge of shipping daily to help it become a normal part of my routine.  Thinking so far that I might need to bring back more attention to how I spend my mornings…

Humans benefit from routine and consistency, it’s how we grow.  I’ll let you know what I find as I lean into my mistake and keep on shipping.

Are there habits you are trying to create that you haven’t taken a disciplined approach with? Or some you have that have worked out well for you? I would love to hear about it. Reply or comment and let me know, let’s find support in creating habit and routine together.