Yesterday I posted a few lessons I’ve learned from my efforts to build new habits to transform my life, positive lessons. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and roses, and I’ve encountered a few roadblocks and pitfalls.
First, I’m still a depressive. After four months, along came May, which I lost, almost in its entirety, to the Grey Mist of Depression. Depression is a cruel mistress, a monster who can strike at any time, even (or especially) when things are going well.
Second, I still have ADHD. My ADHD diagnosis came later, so I’ve been working on it for less time. Fortunately, many of the things I need to do to fight my depression help with my ADHD, but like my depression, it can derail me at any time.
Recently, summer began, so I’ve been backing off on my writing and my videos to spend time with the kids. I went from “Must publish EVERY day,” to only publishing on weekdays. Unfortunately, this interrupts the habits, so I find myself slacking off and missing during the week.
That’s not all.
I’ve had such great success with small disciplines and habit building that recently I added some more things to my daily “to do” list. Too many things, which divided my attention and added to the slippage in my writing and videos.
Fortunately, six months of exercising my self discipline has made it stronger. Also, the things I’ve added are things I like to do so it takes a reminder, “small disciplines” to overcome the ADHD “look, squirrel” to keep me on track.
But, it’s a powerful reminder that I still have these problems, so it’s important not to flood the zone, not to take on too many new things at once.
