Number 1 Lesson From My Longest Writing Break of 1 Month

“All motion and no action” is a fancy phrase for chronic procrastination

I was on a daily writing streak since day 1 of nationwide lockdown. I maintained it till day 125. After that, one sleepless night and my entire schedule went disturbed.

My last blog came on August 28. Since then, I am pushing myself every day to get my ass on the chair. I’ve been struggling for almost four weeks. Today is day 26 of my laziness. Well, not anymore! I am here now, with words.

So how did I finally learn the lesson to continue again today? The reason doesn’t matter because it is absurd to anyone who hasn’t experienced it.

I suffered a temporary but “I-thought-it-would-be-fatal” injury ( burning sensation ) in the eyes. I thought I would go blind.

My eyes were burning so hot that even rinsing with water didn’t help. I couldn’t open my eyes for five minutes. Every time I shut them, it became harder to open. They became red. I still haven’t recovered from it, but it is getting better. That 5-minute over-reaction scared me for good. And I thought, “Fuck it, it’s now or never.”

I won’t call it a near-death experience, but the thought of losing my eye-sight is horrifying enough.

Motion and action are two different things

Preparing for a race and running the final race are two different things. I was in the preparation phase for the last four weeks. I was looking for a decent number of breaks to have. First, I had a one week break, then ten days, then two weeks. You see where I am going with this!

Today it has reached day 26. Today is my father’s birthday. He asked me one week before about why I stopped writing. Honestly, even I don’t know the specific answer to it. It has become my habit. As James Clear says,

“Skip one day, it is a mistake. Skip two days, it becomes a habit.”

I knew I would eventually start writing again because I’ve built a lot of valuable connections during the last four months. It also helped me navigate a hard time of social distancing in the starting of lockdown.

Creative artists know the enjoyment we get after sharing out first creative work with the audience and seeing a positive response. It can light up our day and is an excellent source of motivation to keep working. I want that catharsis again. I want it by sharing more articles, one by one every day. And it won’t come by just preparing to write by searching for motivation by reading more and more blogs. It will come by actually sitting in a comfortable environment and writing.

What’s ahead?

As I said, I was reading in the last four weeks. I read a lot about self-improvement, psychology and neuroplasticity. Different scientists practised neuroplasticity in their own time. They saw the dark phase when even the scientific community ( majority ) was rejecting the concept that our brain is adaptable and evolving continuously.

Neuroplasticity says our brain goes through structural changes throughout life. If you had an idea that we stop learning after a certain age, that is plain wrong. Our learning speed decreases.

We certainly do not approach warp speed. It is just that our brain volume reached saturation, so we learn slowly. Learning new things means building new neural networks. It can also happen by replacing the ones that are no longer in use. Hence, even if the brain volume is full, we can unlearn old behaviours and then learn new ones. This process is continuously happening inside the brain until we die.

Practice and patience are two sides of the same coin

I’ve read a lot of personal stories about the life-changing experiences in this field of medical science with the application of neuroplasticity. I can’t wait to share them with you.

I read ( still reading ) them in the book of neuroplasticity by Norman Doige: “The Brain That Changes Itself”. I’ve even applied some of them to myself, but the common factor is practice.

Patience comes as an added requirement when you are aiming for long term growth. I will be happy once I reached day 10 of this second streak. That would by day 146. I want to feel that momentum while sharing exciting stories daily on how some people have recovered from severe mental health issues without any invasive medical procedure. You may or may not be suffering from mental health issues, but the future blogs will show you how people transformed their lives even when the entire world gave up on them. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration too. I definitely did!

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing on a daily streak. Today is day 136 of 150. Here is the first blog that started the streak.

Thank you for reading! See you tomorrow!

~ Sanjeev