Failure Is Inevitable

"Flogging the Freelancer" is a blog post a day on freelancing in the gig economy. Browse the archives here.

You said it, Backhoe Failure Meme Generator

Tragically, I forgot to blog yesterday. Originally, I set out to blog 365 days this year. Yesterday, I failed to do so. Although, after setting my goal for the year, I realized it was a leap year, so I can still blog 365 times this year. Regardless, I failed in the consecutive department. Disappointing.

Relapse is part of recovery

I guess addicts use this to differentiate between I AM WINNING and I AM FAILING. The truth is that you're probably doing either neither or both at any given time. I figured I would probably forget or fail to blog at least one day this year. And that's exactly what happened. It's not an anomaly. It's an inevitability. Accept it.

Success happens when you set yourself for it

I set myself up to fail. I didn't automate my blogging. I didn't pick a daily time to do it or pick a daily time by which to do it by. A couple times, I almost forgot. A pattern emerged of nearly not doing it, and I didn't act quickly enough to change the pattern. If I'd decided to, say, blog every day right after I woke up, or blog every day by noon, or had the word BLOG tattooed to my forehead, I wouldn't have fallen from my consecutive days perch after 21 days.

Meditate on mindfulness

I've had a good amount of success in the past from meditating. Just 10 minutes a day, prone wherever, thinking as hard as I can about nothing. This is a way to give your mind a break and reset itself so it doesn't go careening off the side of the road and run into a tree and eject you into a lake. I resumed meditation today. I will meditate 10 minutes a day. You should, too.

You can connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and you can email me here.