Streaks snap. A system just picks back up the next morning like nothing happened.
RESILIENCE
WHAT THIS MEANS
Counting consecutive days makes the number the point, and the number is fragile. One miss and the thing you were protecting is gone, which often takes the whole habit with it. A system has no such property, it is simply what you do, and a gap in it is a gap rather than a failure.
Stop tracking the chain and start describing the practice, the thing you do on weekday mornings. Miss one and resume without ceremony. Nothing needs rebuilding, because nothing was broken.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What happens to your habit the morning after you miss?
MORE IN DISCIPLINE, WORK & STANDARDS
- Natural ability only buys a head start. Steady workers spend whole careers reeling in people who had one.
- Anyone can start the project. The last ten percent finds out who actually owns it.
- Quitting a bad habit leaves an empty slot in your day. Fill it on purpose or the old habit moves right back in.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.