Incremental progress towards mastery

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

I have been vlogging since the 5th of November. I had never ever tried vlogging before and did not know what I was doing or how, I just knew that I had to do it. At the time of this writing, three months have passed, and I have produced at least one vlog every single day, some days even more. How long does it take to create a habit? I read in James Clear’s newsletter that it takes forever, because the minute you stop doing it, it is not a habit anymore. However, I just realized there is another way to look at it. You can create a habit instantly. I created my vlogging habit on the 5th of November because I knew I wouldn’t skip a single day no matter what happens. Today I reached a critical milestone in my habit.

I was working with sound insulation measurements in a building that was partly occupied and partly under reconstruction. As an acoustician, I can assure you that this is one of the worst possible circumstances in which to do measurements. Tenants don’t like to be chased out of their dwellings and construction work produces a lot of background noise. In addition, I had travelled very far and had narrow time slots to respect. There was no margin for error and every second counted. These are not the optimal conditions for vlogging, to put it lightly. I could easily have found 1000 excuses not to do it, but instead I started the selfie cam and pressed record. I had no plan and no script. But I had something valuable that I wanted to share with the world. I have found a way to simplify sound insulation measurements using a telescope selfie stick and a tripod. It’s one of those ideas that both saves time and simultaneously increases quality. And I needed precisely 60 seconds to share the concept with the world.

No matter how stressed out you are, no matter how much the world is screaming at you and no matter how tired you are – you can always find 60 seconds. If you can’t find a minute in your life every day to do something important, you are lying. Something happens when you record in the heat of the moment. The authenticity comes through and something magical happens. You cannot fake it and you cannot do it if you plan it. Here’s one of the most important things I have learned from my vlogging: The less I plan and the less I try, the better it gets and the more engagement I get from my audience. This fact is clear as crystal to me now.

It wasn’t until a couple of hours after posting the vlog that it hit me. I have become very good at vlogging! I just did one of my best and most important vlogs under terrible conditions. I just added up the numbers and I have done more than 100 Vlogs today. When analyse the vlog, I can see that I am completely calm despite the conditions. This is the result of incremental progress through those 100 vlogs. I have got the ability to turn on the autopilot when vlogging and just focus on my message instead. The resistance is all but gone now. There is just no comparison to how hard it felt the first months in relation to todays vlog. Here’s another lesson I have learned. The most important vlogs in the whole process were the ones where I faced the greatest resistance. Believe me, there have been hard times when I was about to start crying and THEN realised that I hadn’t done my daily vlog and there was less than one hour left of that day. I just manned up and did the vlog. But those times also results in the largest growth, both in the skill you are practising and you as a person. Here’s the key. If you don’t do the vlog every single day, unconditionally, you will not experience those horrible days of extreme resistance. You will only do the vlogs when you feel “nice”. And consequently, you will not learn how to face unsurmountable odds. But keep showing up, do it every day, and it is impossible to fail. All you need is time. Anyone can do a vlog when the conditions are right. But only a master can do it anytime.