The story of how I quit the 'one a day' rule after three days
The story of how I discarded my 'rules for continuing' on the third day of my restart
After restarting, the first three days went very well.
I thought, 'If it's just one a day, even I can do it.'
The idea that small goals lead to consistency is a classic method written about in many books.
Believing in that, I posted one on the first day, one on the second, and one on the third.
On the night of the third day, I threw that rule away.
I want to write down what was happening.
Around the second day, I started checking my sales page.
Even though I had decided 'not to look,' I opened it anyway.
I did it because I thought there might be some reaction to the first one I posted.
On the morning of the third day, when I woke up, I thought, 'I have to post one today, too.'
The moment this 'I have to' thought appeared, I realized something.
It's the same as it was 10 years ago.
'One a day' may look small, but it is still a numerical goal.
And numerical goals bind my heart to numbers.
My day starts being graded by 'whether I was able to post or not.'
By the afternoon of the third day, I was already on the verge of thinking, 'If I can't post today, I'm a failure.'
If I keep going like this, I'll burn out in a week.
I know this because that's exactly what happened to me 10 years ago.
That's why, on the night of the third day, I quit 'posting one a day.'
After discarding it, I created a different rule.
'Post as much as I feel like on the days I feel like it. On days I don't, I don't.'
Don't count.
Don't decide.
Don't create a rhythm.
There are weeks where I post 100, and weeks where I post zero.
It took me 10 years to accept that this is okay.
Since adopting this rule, I haven't been opening my account every day.
But on the days I do open it, I am able to work properly.
The number I posted in four weeks was [70 accepted by Adobe Stock; I decided not to count the actual number uploaded because it would be discouraging].
I feel like there isn't much difference, considering that if I had kept up '10 a day,' I would have posted 300.
I don't know if that's a lot or a little because I have nothing to compare it to.
But I haven't broken down yet.
And 10 years ago, by the fourth week, I had lost my confidence and stopped.
'Rules for continuing' are not necessarily the right rules for everyone.
In fact, for someone like me with ASD, 'rules for continuing' are the most likely to become a weapon that binds my heart tightly.
That's why, before making rules, I try to remember 'what kind of rules caused me to burn out.'
Ten years' worth of failures helped me hit the brakes from the very first day this time.
I'm glad I wrote down those failures properly back then.
I wrote about the concrete results of trying this 'as much as I feel like on the days I feel like it' for four weeks, and the other rules I decided on to avoid breaking down, in the paid article for the second installment of my series 'ASD x Adobe Stock: A 10-Year Record.'
And I plan to summarize all of my operational rules from here on out in the third installment.
If you'd like, please take a look at my Adobe Stock as well.
https://stock.adobe.com/jp/contributor/207652252/sally%20san