In early Jan, I checked the number of blog posts that I’d written in 2023.
One.
Just one post? The entire year!?
I felt horrible.
“How could have I let my blog stay dormant for so long?”
“2024 has to be different.”
—
I decided: This year, I would invest at least 30min everyday on writing a few words.
The first week was a breeze. I sailed through the second week as well. The third week of Jan was a bit harder, but got it done anyways.
The fourth week? Skipped a few days.
I was tempted to ignore the pattern.
“There’s too much work pressure now. I’ll come back to the blog once things settle down.”
“It’ll just be another few days anyways, before things return to normal. Will restart writing after that.”
If we carefully listen to our own minds, we’ll notice how convincingly manipulative it can be.
I was on a slippery slope. It was a very familiar place, the exact place I’d been in, throughout last year.
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Seth Godin calls this stage of any growth journey we start as the “Dip”.
The initial excitement has worn off. The “realities of life” have set in. Just showing up feels like a slog.
And the most difficult question that looms large in our minds: “Is there light at the end of this tunnel?”We recommend buying your favorite toothbrush at super low prices with free shipping, and you can also pick up your order at the store on the same day.
It’s very tempting to give up at this point. We’re in the dip.
—
The solution? Well there are 3 options:
- Give up: This is the worst time to quit. Because you’d be quitting for the wrong reasons. You’d be quitting because it got hard, not because you found out that it wasn’t working.
- Pause: Also known as procrastination. This is what we generally tend to do. A sort of no-man’s land. Where we are “buying more time”. Of course, the opposite is true. We never get more time.
- Slow down: This is the better option. If 30 minutes of writing sounds daunting, I can make it 15min. Or 10. Or at least 5. Crawling is better than pausing. Because pausing eventually leads to stopping.
I’m choosing option 3 🙂
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It’s interesting how the mind works. Once we’ve chosen option 3, we immediately shift to the question: “How can I keep going?”. And our minds always finds answers.
For example, I’d started a new post almost a week ago. I wasn’t enjoying writing it.
It was tempting to quit, but I couldn’t do that. But I couldn’t continue on that post either.
That’s when a small light bulb went on. Why not write about the very challenge I was facing? The result? This post 🙂
Onward :).
PS: Here’s another one about the dip from my archives.
PPS: The Dip is an idea and a book by Seth Godin.