User blog:Taldin/100 Perfect Days, A Lot of Good Habits

Streak.jpgstency: More Valuable Than You Know (...to me, anyway)
"Taldin has a tendency sometimes to take on huge projects that he doesn't finish because he gets distracted and moves onto the next shiny thing.   He can be inconsistent in his efforts because he's got so many ideas and not enough time to do them all." -- my performance review, 2010

Maybe I'm not a procrastinator, or a slacker, or someone with a bad habit, but what I've definitely lacked is a sense of long term commitment. I originally didn't sign up as a contributor to HabitsRPG because I figured the newness would wear off sooner or later, or I'd get frustrated with having to sign in daily just to check things off. And I'd never been much of a collector (...okay, maaaybe I have a full set of all 50 state quarters...), so the whole Pet thing didn't have much of an appeal to me.

But what I am is a perfectionist and a big believer in teamwork.

Originally, I didn't have a lot of Dailies, but rather a lot of Habits, so I could do them when I felt like it. And then someone in my party who was 10 levels lower started kicking my tail when it came to doing boss damage (I was doing 3.5 damage to my partner's 11), and I found out that only Dailies (and To-Dos) damage bosses. So I shunted a number of my Habits over to Dailies in order to feel like I was pulling my weight. And of course, that made me more intent on doing them.

Forgetting to wipe down the stove one night was a minorly devastating setback; it didn't just mean 'I'll just do it tomorrow', like it used to, but it cost me my Perfect Day bonus and damaged my whole party. Sure, it was only 4 damage and change, but combined with the 6 damage from another party member, some damage from previous days, and the added personal damage, being dropped to 12 health is not a comfortable place to be.

That's the risk of having lots of Dailies, as I'm sure many of you know; the risks are greater, the responsibilities are more numerous, but it gets you towards those rewards quicker, too. I usually level every few days or so, so it's got to take an effort of willful negligence to die, and I pride myself on being reasonably responsible.

Consistency has been the problem. So I put stuff on there that I knew I needed to do more of (taking multivitamins every day, for example) and specific reminders on important days (after the entire household missed it one week, Trash night has its own weekly), but also wanted to do more of ("Work on your novel" hit a streak of 47 days until it was finished) as well as increasing my own resolve (Productive Work means I can't just spend the day websurfing, and it's at 64 days running).

Eventually? I'll start pulling the _really_ hard stuff over from the Habits, like 'Exercise 1/2 hour' and  'Be in bed before 2am', but the key to my own success is to commit to the things you know you can consistently do, add the things you feel confident in doing, and plan ahead for the things you want to do in the future as habits and ToDos.

I'm still working on meeting my weight goal, but at least I'm consistently within 1-3 pounds of it since 'Eat Healthier' has been a Daily for the past 44 days...

You can change yourself, no matter how old or young you are. You just have to have the keys to find the motivational vehicle and put it on the road to self-improvement -- and figure out where your Drive setting comes from.

Taldin (talk) 18:59, July 10, 2014 (UTC)