This week was the first time this year that I missed a day posting a blog. The thing is I WROTE the thing and I guess forgot to hit publish.

When I published the blog for yesterday I looked at the dashboard on the side and saw that my post right before was still listed as draft.

I gasped in horror as that meant I broke my streak ... or did I?

I figured out that I could change the published date and moved it to the day it was written so there's no break in the dates on the blog posts.

It all has me reflecting on the lesson in here. The perfectionist in me was heartbroken. I managed to continuously post on this blog every day for over 6 months, and then "broke" my streak by just forgetting to hit publish.

The truth is that as far as I know, I'm the only one keeping track. Though I hope my posts help other people by motivating them to improve their lives or inspiring them to see things differently, I'm really doing this project for myself. I want to improve my writing and my ability to quickly create content and put it out there.

Plus, surely what counts is that I wrote and prepared a post for that day.

So I decided that I get to make the rules for myself when it comes to this project. Streaks help me feel like i'm keeping up with my own promises so instead of erring on the side of the slightest slip-up means I screwed it up, I'm going the other way.

When it comes to keeping a streak, I'm deciding to make any effort count rather than perfect effort.

High standards are great, unless you can't reach them. Then they're just torture devices disguised as "self-improvement."

That's not what living on the upward spiral is about.

When it comes to the rules you've made for yourself, how can you change those to make following them easier?

No one lived a happy life by being hard on themselves. Trust me, I've tried!