A Writing Streak

For those of you who know me, you know that I like to do crazy streaks – no, I am not “going streaking through the quad.” If you have ever seen the movie Old School, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to check it out. Unlike Will Farrell’s character, I do other types of challenging streaks.

My streaks are unbroken chain-of-events-kind-of-streaks. One year, I ran every day for the year, and I documented each day on Facebook. It was my run-streak. For 18 years, I had a Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) streak, which means I ran it every year for 18 years. Sadly, I just broke that streak. I was not able to fly to Washington DC to do the marathon, so I broke the streak by doing their 50k virtually instead.

Maybe breaking that streak is what has prompted me to take on another streak. For a couple of weeks, I have been wondering what type of streak I want to take on. I considered a no-alcohol-streak. That thought ended in less than 90 seconds. I also considered another run-streak. Neither of those felt quite right. After some consideration, I have settled on a writing-streak. I plan to publish something on my blog every day for 30 days. Wish me luck! I haven’t consistently written in a while, and I know that I don’t have 30-days worth of content in my brain. This will be a hard one.

Why do a streak?

Looking back, I don’t remember why I began my run-streak back in 2015. It could have been because I needed to prove to myself that I don’t quit hard things, and I needed to prove that I am capable of sticking to goals. I know other people do them to build consistency in their lives, to train a little better, to stay motivated, but mine was to prove something. On the other hand, the Marine Corps Marathon streak just kind of happened. I ran my first one in 2004, and my husband deployed, so he wasn’t able to run it with me. When he returned, he decided he’d run the 2005 marathon, so we trained and were on the course together. Note that I didn’t say we ran it together. I think he ran it an hour faster than I did. In 2006, I found Hope for the Warriors and kicked off their Team Hope for the Warriors. For years, I raised money and ran the Marine Corps Marathon. The fund-raising and the training went hand-in-hand. That combination accounted for several years of my Marine Corps Marathon run streak. I guess some streaks are intentional and some just kind of happen. This writing streak will be very challenging and is very intentional.

Why do a writing-streak?

I think there are a number of reasons to do a writing-streak. First, and foremost, I need the practice. As I consider my upcoming goals, one of them will require that I am able to sit and write. Second, I am not doing a great job at being consistent about anything productive lately. This may help me to “feel” productive. Finally, I know that I am not disciplined enough to just write so I am subjecting myself to another streak/challenge so that I actually do what I say I am going to do. It is a sort of accountability exercise. I have found that I do quite well when I create these self-imposed accountability exercises in my life.

What do I expect from this exercise?

That’s the most intriguing part of the process. I have no idea what to expect. What I know from past experience is that when I did my run-streak, the running wasn’t the hard part; posting to social media was the hard part. When I did the Marine Corps Marathon streak, the coordination of getting to the actual event was the hard part. I had expected that training year-after-year would be the trick, but the challenge was actually getting to Washington D.C. Right now, I think the hard part will be the writing, but I bet when this is all said and done, I’ll find that something else was the real challenge. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know.