Today is the 100th day of my 365 daily bogging challenge. I started it on January 1st this year, and I intend to carry it on until December 31st. Until now, I showed up every day.
100 is a nice, round number. Feels like a meaningful milestone and that’s why I decided to make today’s article about that. I still have a monthly checkup on the last day of every month, but this one is different.
First of all, this is the longest streak of daily writing for me. I did some other types of challenges, mostly 30 days trials, but also yearly challenges with monthly reports, but none of them was for 100 days, continuously. I’m not saying this in terms of self-gratifying pats on the back, because, as you will see below, I’m not particularly proud of the quality, but to accentuate the type of effort that I engaged in.
And my conclusion so far is that there is value in showing up every day, even if you’re not always at your best.
Second, this challenge came at a very strange time. It’s not like the world has the same predictability it had two years ago. We’re on the verge of important global changes (and no, I’m not talking about Covid-19, but about the changes ignited by how Covid-19 was hijacked and used by authoritarian regimes to strengthen their grip). There is still a lot of tectonic movement in how society chooses to function from now on. There were changes in my personal and professional life. It was, by and large, a period way more intense than any other one in my life.
And my conclusion is that there is value in enforcing self-discipline, especially during chaotic times.
Third, the quality of my blog posts was fluctuating a lot. Topics were also a bit chaotic and I wrote a lot about the pandemic. I am accepting I wasn’t always on course, and that my writing wasn’t as consistent (in terms of clarity) as I wanted it to be, although it’s a bit difficult. I was expecting to see a bit of dilution, so that’s not unexpected. But even if it’s not unexpected, I wish I had tackled this dilution better.
And my conclusion is that perfectionism is worse than just doing your job, day in and day out. I’m slowly adjusting to this perspective.
All in all, even if this challenge doesn’t go through – although I see no reasons why it shouldn’t, right now – the first 100 days are already done, and there were benefits. That’s all the counts, so far.