Reflections of a Public Failure
I’ve failed. It’s not the first time, but it’s the first time I’ve failed publicly. On October 31st 2013 I publicly declared that I was starting a new daily blogging habit. I also publicly stated that I had two goals for this daily blog:
1) Surpass my personal best of writing 45 inspirational and insightful daily blog post in a row, then
2) Continue to write 365 daily blog post in a row of the same quality.
I accomplished my first goal, but I failed hard going for the second. I got to 73 blog post in a row then quietly ended my streak on January 12th. It just so happens the post I wrote before I failed was titled What if a habit is not an addiction?
As I was writing it, I was privately having a “Come to Jesus” moment as I realized that after writing 73 blog post in a row that something magical didn’t happen. I didn’t form any type of spectacularly wonderful habit that would propel me to day 365 and possibly to publish my first book.
Two days latter, I followed up with another post titled Calling for death to the daily blog. Although, I vowed in that post to continue my blogging ways, I silently knew that it could be then end for me. Getting to day 365 was a stretch goal I may never reach.
Since that point, my routine of publishing inspirational and insightful blog post has slowly deteriorated. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I’ve published anything in over 10 days. I’m now not even sure if I should stop or keep trying.
It’s sort of like deciding if you should try to hike up an intimidating mountain after failing. It comes down to one simple question. Is quitting more painful than failure?