When dealing with productivity you usually set certain strict rules to fulfill certain goals. This is good, however, it will also backfire if you don’t account for one thing. It can create a feeling of failure if you don’t follow these rules 100%.
The failure in itself (not doing your bed for one day) isn’t the problem, the emotion is. The emotion of failing has the effect that you either 1) try even harder (and eventually succeed) or 2) you drop the task completely because you feel like you can’t keep up with the rules, and you might as well not do it all then. The latter is usually the one who takes the upper hand because you won’t have to fail again if you have no commitment to break. This, by the way, is probably one of the strongest reasons why extreme diets fail. Emotions are stronger than logic.
Don’t forget that something is better than nothing. Something can have profound effects on your life even if they’re not everything.
There are two lessons to be learnt here:
1. Self discipline is good but don’t let it stall you.
2. Past failure does not imply future failure.
