I can't believe that; I allowed myself to regress by failing to maintain my writing streak. I feel so sad that; it was three days ago since I last published an article after promising myself to write consistently.

The importance of streak is being underestimated in today's world. As a user of the language learning app "Duolingo", I have always wondered why maintaining a streak is given so much attention on the app, but, now I know the reason why.

When, you maintain a streak in doing something, the less likely for you to stop doing it and the more likely you are going to achieve the goal you set.

But, as soon as you let yourself lapse, the more you will find yourself giving excuses for not doing it, and thereby this reduces the chance of you getting back on track.

That was what happened when I let a day pass by without writing. The next day the thought to write vanished away. Yesterday I promised myself to write I did but not on this platform but, on Hive. I was thinking I would be able to write on both platforms, but my schedule didn't go as I planned because I got distracted and busy with other things.

When your streak get broken

After your streak gets broken; two things would happen and you will be the decider of which. It is either you pick yourself up and restart another streak or fall into the trap of prolonging your abstinence.

For example, imagine someone who is trying to wean away from addiction to substances like drugs, alcohol or smoking; by promising himself or herself not to take it anymore. Let's assume such a person spent the next 30 days without the substance but succumbed on the 31st day. Such a person would likely not restart the streak because there is a tendency that the person might think of himself or herself as a failure and the lure of whatever substance the person was addicted to would surge.

How to maintain consistency

That's the reason, why people who are trying to wean themselves from whatever addiction they have; need the right people around them.

You can't say you want to stop smoking and continue to work in a cigarette company because every day you would get tempted to smoke. You can't say you want to give up drinking while you move and roll with people who are heavy drinkers.

You need the right people who will steer you away from the addiction you are trying to leave, and not people who will draw you back and make you relapse. Also, to maintain a streak you need people who will check up on you and make sure you don't relapse.

Streak isn't only important for people who are trying to stop an addiction but, for also people who are trying to learn something new or pick up a new habit. If you want to change your bad habits: you need to pick up good habits that will replace the bad ones.

For example, someone who spends a lot of time on social media can remove this habit or addiction by forming a new habit like reading books, writing or exercising. This will slowly tell the brain to replace the old bad habits with the new good habit.

Also, for people who want to learn something new or start a new journey, you need to surround yourself with people who are into the path you have chosen. You have to be consistently practicing or lest you fall off.

That's why I like Duolingo, they always remind me with notifications to always continue my learning streak. Same in reality, you need someone who would check on you from time to time to make sure you fulfil your streak.

So what happens if you have nobody who can fulfil this role?

Then you should be the motivator of yourself, always remind yourself of the benefits of picking up new habits or why you should stop an addiction or the benefits of picking up a new career path.

I wish, I can be consistent in my learning path and my writing journey.

Lead image from UNSPLASH

23-08-2022

5:35 pm

Thanks for reading!