Doing Something Everyday Doesn’t Make You a Better Person
If you’re doing something 365 days a year, are you really listening to your body’s needs?
Did you meditate today? Complete your Apple Watch activity rings? Take 10,000 steps? Study ten minutes of French on your app? Did you floss your teeth?
When it comes to self betterment and personal development, there certainly is something to be said for the “every damn day” approach. By taking the guesswork out of the equation — will I or won’t I?—you essentially force yourself to make progress. And in return, you get what I imagine is the smug satisfaction of posting screenshots of your unbroken Activity Rings.
On the one hand, I’m impressed by this. Beyond the basic mechanics of being a living, breathing human being, there is not one thing I did every day of last year. But on the other hand, I think this is for good reason.
Routines and habits matter—but so do rest, reflection, and being willing to respond to our emotional and physical needs on a day to day basis. And I would argue, this latter practice is perhaps more sophisticated than the rote repetition 365 days per year.
It forces you to really choose the habits that make you feel good, and to get back to them when you’ve had to step away…
