I made no forward movement on the personal project today. I’m arriving at a couple conclusions with all this. By “all this” I mean my #tinychallenges.

#tinychallenges No.1: 3 words (the one we’re doing on the podcast)
#tinychallenges No.2: 5 minutes of personal project work per day
#tinychallenges No.3: Daily journal of personal project status

See what I did there?

I over-complicated it. I couldn’t do just ONE tiny challenge. I got hungry to do more, and push myself more and I complicated it. Somehow, my daily journal seems to have created a safety net in my brain for it being OK if I miss a day of personal project writing even though the personal project work is only asking for 5 minutes of my time. Knowing I can talk here, later about whether I did or did not do the work gives me an option. I'm starting to feel like that has defeated the purpose of the personal project. I also think it's partially because I don't like working on things I don't feel like I can share or talk about. I like sharing what I'm doing. I learn from it openly and there's this great bonus of when you folks who actually read these - READ and share your thoughts and feedback - it's awesome! So I’m feeling a bit like I need to keep stuff right out in the open and DO. Ups, downs, fails, wins, whatever. Keep doing and sharing. This journal is sort-of that, but it’s a layer removed from the actual THING. And that’s causing an oddity in my rhythm. It feels off.

Here’s what’s good, though: I’m writing every day. Here, if not also elsewhere. I LOVE that. When I started doing my #tinychallenges initially, I picked a thing that I was excited to leaarn/try/do/share. The daily journals feel a little unfocused, and perhaps where this entire post comes from. I’m frustrated that I’m not staying more focused on my little personal project, but I am enjoying the journaling even when I feel like I don’t have much to talk about. There’s a learning experience here. For me, anyway. It’s OK to realize you bit off more than you can chew. I may need to find another path to completion, but I will keep on going.

A lot of thinking out loud here. Curious - Did you set out on any paths, goals, resolutions or anything like that when January started? Anyone ever run into stuff like this? How is it all going?