Before yesterday, I had an 83-day streak of publishing to 200 Words A Day. I also broke my Duolingo streak (which I will repair using some in app currency that I earned). I also broke the chain on physio exercises, on plan food, publishing to IGTV, publishing to Medium, publishing to Anchor, and reading.

And… it’s ok.

I woke up at 4:30 and delivered workshops on creating a clear message and becoming a content generation machine to 35 people in a rural area. And they listened. And they took notes. And they connected with one another. I think some businesses will actually start because of this.

I spent 2 precious hours with Anne-Marie, a dear friend. She was the one who organised the workshops and drove me there and to the train station afterwards.

I took the train and the light rail to the hotel where my partner’s work is putting on a conference. I spent the evening talking with the people he spends time with every single work day.

I keep streaks because I need the consistency in my life to drive it forward. I’m an Upholder (if you know Gretchen Rubin’s 4 tendencies framework) and I tend to tighten around routine and streaks. I let it happen because these are positive changes. But it’s always difficult when a long streak breaks.

If level 1 is starting at all, then level 2 is keeping it going.

It’s tempting to think that I’m building a bridge and I’ve skipped a whole section rendering the bridge unusable. When really, I’ve skipped a day of building the bridge and now I continue the build.

It would be so easy to think of the whole first part of the bridge as “not counting” because I lost my streak.

So now I face level 3: continuing without the gold star of the streak…doing the writing and the learning and the training and the eating and the filming and the reading for their own sake.

It’s the work itself that’s important.