For those who may be curious about what actually happened for my 30 Days of May Piano Challenge it is time to clue you in.

I failed… hard. After going out of town on a four day stretch for work mid May, I had missed the better half of a week crossing out my days of practice on the calendar. A cardinal rule of rule breaking is that once a rule is broken, it’s much easier to continue breaking. You ever break the ice? Once your in the water it’s hard to get back out. That is exactly what happened with this challenge. I broke the rule of practicing everyday. Instead of forgiving myself and picking up the slack for the days I missed, I continued to swim below the surface.

There were many more contributing factors for this failure, all of my own accord. The month of May was a great month for new beginnings in my life. I had just started this blog, was beginning the job hunt in Utah, and trying to improve more aspects of my life than I should have.

The key for starting new habits is to not overwhelm yourself with too many things at once. You cannot possibly eat better, work out more, pick up a new hobby (or 3), become a more positive person, focus on organizing, and learn a new language all from square one. You are bound to get engulfed by the flood of new processes, habits, and routines you are striving to create for yourself. While all of them are good ideas gone about with the best intentions, you must incorporate them gradually or it will feel like drinking from a fire hose.

I tried drinking out of that hose in May and I got soaked. All of my progress swelled up before flooding out and disappearing down the nearest drain. That is the reason I only managed to get out two posts the whole month of June. I failed at the piano and that broken promise continued down the line for writing, working out, and eating better. My habits have currently devolved back to what they were pre-May (mostly) but with one significant change. I write everyday now.

I am building this habit first because it is the most mentally freeing for me. Once this habit has been forged, I can begin to document my progress in other aspects of life with a prosaic professionalism previously unknown to me personally. Once I have written everyday for a month I will start on my next priority. Diet. After I lock down both of these new habits successfully, I can begin a third. Exercise. That should get me near the end of 2016 with three major changes under the belt and ready for my fourth which may finally be… once again, the piano.

Giving up on playing is not something I ever plan to do. But I am intentionally putting it off to build better habits first. The next time around will be different, so I can begin with a voracious appetite for learning the instrument that has inspired positive thought within me for so long.