In December 2016, I did a 30 day blogging challenge. For a portion of that time I was driving across the country and had to catch up on six posts in one day after falling behind.
When you prime your mind to feel achieved when you reach a certain number, that number feels like the limit of your capabilities. You have no reason to imagine anything higher until you get there.
What if you set a much higher goal initially?
On my birthday last month I decided to blog (or create something) every day for a year. 30 days of blogging sounds like a lot until you stack it up against 365 days.
When I set a goal for a month of blogging, even two months sounded near impossible. When I set it for twelve months, one month became insignificant.
Today is my 30th straight day of blogging and it feels like I’ve only just begun. It has been surprisingly easy so far. There have definitely been a tough days on which I waited until 2 or 3 in the morning before throwing something together like this day and that day.
I have a long way to go. 30 short days no longer feels daunting. Instead, it feels like a minuscule step in the pursuit of something much larger. Just six months ago I struggled to get to this point.
This makes me wonder how much I’ve held myself back by setting conservative goals. How many times have I perceived my capabilities to be lower than they actually are, and in turn lived up to those very capabilities?
Those questions aren’t important. The important one is: What will my next big goal be?