How to Overcome the "Three-Day Habit"?

Now, I wonder if anyone remembers what I wrote in this essay last January. It was about my New Year's resolution for the year: "This year, I will shed my 'three-day habit' personality and become someone who can stick with things!" To report on the results, I successfully cleared my goal! What did I continue? Stretching, running, language study, and the newly started Ashtanga yoga. In any case, by focusing on 'continuing' rather than the degree of progress, I was able to achieve my goal.

How did I do it? I decided how many times a week to do each activity, wrote it in my planner, and put a checkmark when I completed it. Some might think it's nothing special, but for me, this turned out to be the perfect method to overcome my 'three-day habit'.

There's a key point to this method. First, when deciding the number of times, it shouldn't be too easy to achieve. However, it also can't be an unrealistic ideal, as it's obvious that you won't be able to continue. So, it needs to be a number of times that you can achieve with a little effort. In other words, it should be a number of times that requires a bit of a push to accomplish. What happens then? You get a sense of accomplishment. You experience joy and pleasure. Because you get that, you feel motivated to continue, and you push yourself because you want to experience it. Therefore, the crucial point is to set the number of times just enough to push yourself a little, so you can praise yourself by thinking, 'Wow, I'm great!'

Of course, the appropriate number of times will vary from person to person, but for me, it's something like this: 4 times a week for stretching and language study, and 2 times for running. I attend yoga class once a week, and practice at home 4 times. I actually break it down further, but I'll omit the details to avoid confusion. In addition to the frequency, I also set goals at the beginning of the year for language study and yoga, specifying what I wanted to achieve and by when. For example, with yoga, I aimed to be able to do a certain pose from January to March. Then, by June, I planned to add another pose, and so on. I wrote down my progress in my planner. I did the same for language study, setting both frequency and progress goals, and this setting of specific objectives was a major factor in my ability to continue. By setting short-term goals like 'how many times a week' and long-term goals like 'by this date, I want to achieve this,' I was able to maintain motivation and concentration for an extended period.

Until now, I've never planned things so meticulously and long-term. So, it feels like a fresh breeze is blowing through my thought process, and it's very enjoyable. After all, the keywords that describe my personality are arguably 'intuition, spontaneity, and lack of planning.' Thanks to that, I can tackle things with incredible concentration, but that momentum only lasts for a few months. Gradually, I start to slack off, and then repeat the cycle of stopping with a thought like, 'Oh well, it's fine~.' Language study is perhaps the prime example of this. For years, no, for decades, I'd start studying with great enthusiasm at the beginning of the year, thinking, 'This is the year!', but that enthusiasm would fade by spring, leading to the usual abandonment.

What I Accomplished Last Year. What I Want to Achieve This Year (2)

My Goal for This Year: "Deepening My Practice"

By the way, what are the ultimate goals for each of these activities? For language study, there's nothing specific I want to do with it. It's purely from the desire to overcome the fact that I've tried and failed to stick with it so many times before, and because I hated making excuses like 'I'm too busy' or 'I don't have time.' If I had to name one, perhaps the goal is to regain self-trust by overcoming this.

Stretching, which I've continued for over 10 years, is essential for my naturally stiff body. Running, now in its second year, was added to my goals because I've developed the physical capacity to run. And with both, if I skip too many sessions, the subsequent practice becomes painful, difficult, and arduous. That's why I decided to set specific frequencies to ensure I do them regularly.

As for yoga, it stems from my curiosity about 'What kind of person would I become if I could master this?' and a desire to experience that. However, I learned thoroughly through my own experience last year that reaching such a master level requires an immense amount of time. If the master level is a one-meter ruler, then my progress last year was perhaps about 0.01 millimeters. It seems like it will take an extraordinary amount of time to master it.

Despite such slow progress, there were things I could praise myself for. Twice, I had to interrupt my practice due to injuries – sewing my left thumb and hurting my left collarbone – yet I managed to overcome them and continue. After all, it's dangerous when the thread of continuity snaps due to unexpected events like these. I've experienced many times in the past that after a break, I'd feel reluctant to go to class and eventually quit. At those times, something is needed to spur me on with a 'Let's do this!' attitude, and my own goal-setting for achievement greatly helped me in dealing with such situations, allowing me to successfully resume my practice. This became a great source of confidence for me.

So, my goal for this year is to "deepen my practice." In other words, I want to carry over what I continued last year and further improve and grow. Last year, I was simply focused on continuing, but now I have the desire and ambition to 'become a master of these, even if it takes a long time in the future.' I've finally started to seriously think about achieving my long-held wish to be someone who can confidently say, 'This is my forte,' in areas other than work. This, too, can be seen as a manifestation of the confidence gained from continuing for the past year. I wonder what kind of results I'll be reporting this time next year. I'm looking forward to it, but also a little apprehensive... No, what's the point if I don't trust myself! I'll enjoy the planning and do my best!