365 Inspirations—291: Continuity is the SECRET

"Continuity of practice is the secret of success."—SN Goenka

Don't ask me how I got here. How on earth have I gotten to post 291? I've been writing blog posts for two-hundred and ninety-one days STRAIGHT!

Only 74 posts left!

The secret?

Just do it. Don't think too much about how you'll do it. Pick a goal, commit to it AND JUST DO IT.

Put one foot in front of the other. Place your hands on the keyboard and type one letter at a time.

There will be times when you feel like quitting. There will be times when that voice inside your head says, "What's the point? Is anyone reading these posts anyway."

Keep going. Continuity is the secret of success with anything you set out to do.

You will hit walls, fall down, wonder 'what's it all about Alfie,' get sick, feel emotionally unstable, lose power (in more ways than one), lack confidence, and almost throw in the towel.

Another secret? Never, ever stop on those days that you feel like that.

If you want to stop something you've committed yourself to, stop when you feel REALLY GOOD. Stop only when you feel like you've gotten what you need from something...when it's enough...when you feel satisfied.

I'm a person who tends to stick to my commitments, so I'll continue to write those 74 posts because it's my ritual and I enjoy it. I am definitely in the habit of blogging every day! Of course I'm happy when people read and comment, but I write these posts because I enjoy writing them and if there is readership, that's a bonus!

Have you ever stuck a commitment out to the very end even though you sometimes felt like giving up? What was it?

365 Inspirations—64: Just Show Up

Yoga in Times Square, June 2012

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."—Woody Allen

Sometimes inspiration comes from simply showing up. I can't count the times when I said, "Maybe I'll skip yoga today," but showed up and was so happy I did. There's something to be said for showing up.

So here I am showing up on my blog on a Tuesday evening at 5pm. I have a split shift today and need to make some dinner and take a shower before going back to school.

It's the end of the quarter and tonight I need to proctor an exam for my students. Fortunately, I've already made the copies of the test, so all I need to do is show up! It's one of those days.

The weather outside is gray again and truthfully all I want to do is crawl into bed and hide out until the sun comes out again, but I have things to do and people to meet. Besides, I know I always feel much better when I participate in life, even when I don't always feel up to doing anything.

Perhaps I have 'the end of the quarter blues'. It's really hard to be motivated today. There are so many new things I want to do and so many new directions I want to explore, but right now I've got responsibilities that I need to show up for.

I tend to be a dreamer. I love planning vacations and scheming new plans. Sometimes I get lost in all my ideas and forget that I have a life that I need to attend to.

So today I'm going to show up for the things I need to show up for. Sometimes that is the hardest part, but it always ends up being much better than I imagined it to be.

Off I go to shower, eat and head back to work.

Do you find that if you simply show up to events in your life, that things turn out much better than you imagined?