Silly Little Things That Help

Let's talk about silly little things that help.

Photo by Alex Alvarez on Unsplash

Things that other people say are silly, frivolous, and shouldn't work, but for you they help.

I’ve found things like this that help me and I've had to learn not to listen to those other people. 

My advice is to find the things that work for you and don't worry what other people think.

As a friend quoted to me, “If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.” I looked it up to see who the quote is from and it's from  Mercedes Lackey. Fun. 

Here's a thing that helps me do stuff and a little story.

Years ago I learned about morning pages and I really like the idea. Granted I don't do it in long form. With dyslexia and some manual dexterity issues in my hands it's very painful and stifling and doesn't really facilitate the stream-of-consciousness that you're going for when you do morning pages. 

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

But there is this delightful website that I found somewhere along the line called 750 words. It's a website where you can do this stream-of-consciousness journaling and it even indicates to you when you've hit the 750 words mark. 

750 words because that's about the number of words on three pages of long-form writing. 

I have been trying for a long time to get back into a consistent groove of doing morning pages. I remember when I was seeing a good therapist, I found the morning pages had some of the same good feelings that I would get from untangling things in my head as when I would see that therapist.  

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

So this is a thing that I knew was good for me and I did enjoy doing it everyday, but for many reasons I wasn't doing it. 

I'm sure plenty of us have had people tell us ‘that's not important, you should be doing this other thing instead.’ A lot of times they want you to do things that would serve them rather than spend time on yourself. It isn’t always something they’re consciously and maliciously doing, but eventually it doesn't really matter, it's still getting in your way of doing things that matter to you. Even after you no longer have contact with these people. And I'm sure there are lots of other things that have gotten in your way of doing something that you feel is really important to you. 

I'm telling you right now, all of the people who are telling you “well if you couldn't do it then it wasn't that important” are absolutely full of garbage. 

Do not listen to them. 

Take your time to actually think about what it is that is stopping you from doing this thing. Don't just assume that you're a terrible or lazy person, especially if you find out ‘well I have trouble writing when there are too many sounds’ and you're not getting space to write in quiet. 

That is a problem that is solvable, granted depending on your situation it might be more difficult to solve, but it is a thing that you can zero in on and identify as something that is causing issues. 

So I was having all sorts of these little issues trying to build this habit and then I found something that motivated me and cut through all of the muck. 750 words has badges. 

That's right! Little badges. With cute little mascots on them.

After 3 days of writing, whether they are consecutive or not, you get a little badge of a turkey. If they're not consecutive your turkey is black and white and then when you finally get 3 consecutive days of writing you get a colored in turkey badge. After 10 days you get a flamingo. And then after 30 you get an albatross. 

It's the albatross that did it for me. I had a little black and white albatross and I realized at that point that they got colored in when you completed the consecutive days. 

So I set up the goal, I wanted a colored in albatross badge. There were some unavoidable hiccups in my first attempt. I missed a day or two. Yet I just got back on the wagon and kept trying. 

A combination of the colored & uncolored
albatross badges from 750words.com

On February 19th I got my albatross  badge.  I was so excited and happy and wanted to see if I could do another month, which I successfully did and then I did another month after that. The next badge was a phoenix for 100 days and I went for it. 

On April 30th I had been going for 100 days and I got my colored in phoenix badge. I didn't want to stop and now as of writing this I am 4 days away from 200 consecutive days and a pterodactyl badge. 

It's silly and probably seems inconsequential to other people, but I think part of it is the silliness. There's no way someone can reason me out of wanting to get the badge. And it works. It clearly works. At least for me. 

So I've been wondering, is there a way that I can utilize this simple, adorable, and silly method of motivation? Can I use the idea of little badges as rewards to cut through all of the mental muck that other people's disapproval and unpleasant words left inside of my brain? 

Maybe. 

It's certainly worth a try. 

I've even made some cute little badges already with my vector art on Inkscape. So I'll be trying that out. 

A look at the badges I have been making.

But what I want to tell you is this. If you manage to find something, even if you couldn't explain it to another person, but it works for you, don't worry about what they think. 

Don't worry about how they think a brain should work. If you figure out how your brain works, run with it. 

Don't undo your progress because it displeases others.  

And if you're resisting trying something that seems silly and inconsequential maybe give it a try. The worst that could happen is it doesn't work for you and now you know that. Take the time to really listen to yourself.  

P.S. For a look at the creation process of the badges and other art I make go to Fairy Oasis on YouTube.