Trouble Forming New Habits? Learn from My Mistakes
(If you prefer to watch, check out my video on YoutTube!
Previously, I uploaded a blog where I talked about forming habits and actually have them stick. But am I a credible, reliable source?
Let’s be real, based on my YouTube upload history, it doesn’t look like I am. And things start looking worse if you dig into my uploads and actually watch some of them. That’s because, in one of them, I publicly announced that I would be posting a video on YT once a week from then on (hint: I haven’t).
So, what gives? Read till the end of this blog. I promise you’ll be able to use my story to learn how to set and solidify new habits.
The thing about making long-term commitments is that if you don’t have a system in place to ensure that you keep them, they’re likely to unravel at some point. So while I’m proud that I was at least true to my word for almost three months, life eventually hit and I entered a stressful period as I tried to figure out my future housing situation.
Initially, I did my best to put the stress aside as I tried to maintain my weekly uploading schedule, but eventually it got to be too much. I couldn’t handle both the stress of having to upload every week and finding housing options for myself , three other (unresponsive) people, and two of their pets. So I decided to take a step back from YouTube to focus on my housing search. But this was a double-edged sword because, while it did relieve some of the stress I was feeling, it also meant that all the momentum I had built by posting consistently the previous few months came to a screeching halt. And so, even after I figured out my housing situation, I didn’t immediately get back to posting on YouTube.
Image of sloth provided by LillyCantabile on Pixabay
At first, I told myself that actually this was a good thing and that it fell in line with everything I had talked about in my previous videos. By taking some time to reflect on my YouTube journey so far – to see what was working and what wasn’t and to visualize how I saw it going forward – I was putting into practice some of the recommendations I had given in past videos.
During this break, I thought about the sort of community I want to attract and worked on the “branding,” look and message I need to be projecting to do so. During this break, I also met with my mentor and as a result, as I reflected on a question she asked me, finally saw how all my ideas and content are connected. And so, the motto for UC was born: An invitation to slow down.
Ultimately, I was choosing to view this break as a time where I was electing to slow down in order **to really figure out my intention behind doing YT and my deeper purpose. And true to that mission, I decided that I no longer wanted to hold myself to a strict once-weekly posting schedule. Instead, I decided to prioritize the quality of my videos and, as a means to do so, improve my editing, animation and motion design skills and develop my editing style and voice.
And I think that was the right move, but pretty soon four months passed and I still hadn’t posted a long-form video. That’s the moment where I realized that something else was preventing me from getting back into YT.
My fear had returned. I kept telling myself I had been away for too long and, even though my audience isn’t large by any measure, it felt like any video I posted now would be seen as a discontinuity from my previous videos.
Besides, in the time that I was thinking about my look and branding, I also started looking towards some of the YouTubers I admire most and taking mental notes on their presentation, style, editing, and so on. But what first was an innocent search for inspiration soon became a damaging practice in self-comparing. And I wasn’t comparing myself to just anyone either, I was comparing myself to people who have been in ‘the game’ for years and who of course have something to show for it.
But my brain annoyingly skipped over that part and I started seeing my videos and presentation style as too slow. Dry. Visually uninspired. Boring, even.
So how did I get out of it?
I started small. I started compiling resources for free assets like royalty free pictures, videos, and sound effects; I started looking up After Effects tutorials on YouTube and making templates for the different sort of content I plan to be making. I organized my digital space and in doing so was introduced to Notion, I backed up all my files and cleared up my drives, I had a breakthrough (or two) on how to repurpose my horizontal videos as vertical videos for shorts and IG reels, and I FINALLY velcroed my external HD to my laptop.
This all made me feel like an actual YouTuber. It made me feel organized and well-prepared because I now was organized and well-prepared. And now that everything was laid out in front of me, not only was my vision for the future of Unbound Creation and this channel clearer, but the path to get there became a whole lot clearer, too.
TAKE AWAYS
It’s good to slow down, but always be conscientious of whether you’ve slowed down out of self-compassion or fear
You’re a (insert your dream career here) as soon as you decide you are and start acting like it
Don’t compare yourself to others, especially to people who are in totally different positions than you, whether in terms of resources, connections, experience, knowledge, skill-level, whatever
Build momentum by doing little things related to your goal and on a related note create a system and structure to help you achieve it
Know where you’re going, but don’t overly focus on the outcome, instead, as always, focus on the journey.
So, hopefully you can use the speedbumps I experienced on my journey to accelerate yours. Or at the very least make it as smooth as possible.
This blog is part of my my habit-forming series, so if you found it useful, check out my related blogs. I’ll link it them here.