I Broke My Writing Streak — Intentionally. Here’s Why.

Don’t blame “the dip,” because it wasn’t that.

In fact, after publishing every day for more than three weeks (there was one essay that got published past midnight — but that was my WiFi connection’s fault LOL), the resistance to share my work weakened until I can easily shrug it off . Writing and posting every day became almost natural to me.

So why did I skip shipping yesterday if this was the case?

If you haven’t read one of my recent essays, I wrote about Gretchen Rubin’s concept of “The Four Tendencies.”

Summary of the Tendencies:

UPHOLDER:“I do what others expect of me — and what I expect from myself.”

QUESTIONER: “I do what I think is best, according to my judgment. If it doesn’t make sense, I won’t do it.”

OBLIGER: “I do what I have to do. I don’t want to let others down, but I may let myself down.”

REBEL: “I do what I want, in my own way. If you try to make me do something — even if I try to make myself do something — I’m less likely to do it.”

Learn more about the four tendencies here.

Spoiler alert: I’m a questioner. And yesterday, I was reminded of my first essay for Ship30 titled “Why do you want this piece of writing to live?”

I realized that while showing up is important, intention is too.

Bewildered, I asked myself, “Why am I posting every day anyway? Am I being consistent for the sake of being seen as consistent, even if it means shortchanging my audience of value?”

And here’s what I found:

I want to show up to serve. Not merely for the sake of maintaining a streak.

Originally published last July 22. Like? Sign up for my weekly-ish newsletter Love Notes for more.