{"id":452,"date":"2021-10-18T00:35:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T23:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=452"},"modified":"2024-07-22T00:29:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T23:29:33","slug":"tengo-que","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2021\/10\/18\/tengo-que\/","title":{"rendered":"I have to..."},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing that I set out to do with the blog a few months ago, and that I\u00b4ve kept doing since, is writing a new post each week. As you can imagine, sometimes I find it harder than others to keep it up... I usually write during the weekend, when in theory I have more time, but then in practice, it\u00b4s not unusual to get as far as Sunday evening without having written the week's post, as it happened today. And at the end of the day, tiredness and laziness start to show up...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But hey, here I am, writing, as it couldn\u00b4t be any other way. Tiredness and laziness are going to have to wait for another little while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how do you achieve that? How do you get to keep up a habit when that moment arrives, the moment when you don't feel like doing it at all, and instead you feel like skipping it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One option is resorting to willpower, as we very often do: you remind yourself all the reasons why \"you have to do it\", you beat yourself up for wanting to skip it, and you force yourself to do it even if you don't feel like it. After all, you \"have to do it\", right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that option will probably work, at least at the beginning, but at the cost of giving you a hard time (and you suffer it twice: when you beat yourself up, and when you end up doing it without any motivation). So then in the long run, how can you stay strong and keep up the habit if you see each step as an obligation? How can you not stop feeling like doing it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the trick is to make it look not like an obligation, but something we have decided to do ourselves, because that's the reality - even if it's something that somebody has imposed on us, if we have committed to it, it's because we have accepted that commitment, for whatever reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In cases like this, it may be useful to ask ourselves what we made that commitment for. And please note I'm saying \"what for\", instead of \"why\"; the \"what for\" makes us look forward and find motivation, while the \"why\" leaves us looking back, searching for justifications. If we continue with the example of this blog, I keep writing a post every week to nurture my most creative side, to keep the blog alive and not let it be forgotten again, and to share my thoughts and experiences, in case they other people find them useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, once we have remembered the \"what for\", and it's clear in our mind that the habit is worth keeping, we can use some language tricks to flip that perception of obligation, simply by choosing the right words, inside our heads as well as outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently heard in a conference that if we say \"I have to...\" or \"I must...\" whatever it is, the simple fact of thinking like that already stresses us out and demotivates us, because we don't usually like being forced to do things. On the other hand, if we swap it with \"I want to...\", then our brain accepts it much better, and we feel much less resistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what happens when we don't feel right saying \"I want to\"? The speaker offered a third option for that particular case: just saying \"I'm going to...\" without getting into whether it's something I want or something I have to do. I'm doing it, and that's all. No need to mull it over, it's time to do it, which is what I tell my youngest daughter when she fights back something I ask of her :-)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as a final point, something else that helps me a lot is knowing that the biggest resistance that I have is really towards getting started, towards breaking that inertia that I feel before I begin. Then once I'm on the task, in this case, writing, I know that I really enjoy it, that the ideas keep coming with little effort, and that after finishing I feel really happy for having published an article once more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about you? What tricks to you use to stay motivated and keep up your habits?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Una cosa que me propuse para el blog hace unos meses, y que desde entonces llevo cumpliendo, es escribir una entrada nueva a la semana. Como os podr\u00e9is imaginar, unas veces me cuesta m\u00e1s que otras el mantener esa regularidad… Normalmente suelo escribir durante el fin de semana, que en teor\u00eda tengo m\u00e1s tiempo, pero … Continue reading I have to...<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Binarywords - Tengo que... \/ I have to...","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Tengo que... \/ I have to...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-7i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9859,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/10\/26\/sesgos-instintivos-transmitir\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":0},"title":"Instinctual Biases: Transmitting","author":"binarybea","date":"26\/10\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Completamos hoy el recorrido por los tres sesgos instintivos de Awareness to Action (Conciencia en Acci\u00f3n) que empezamos hace dos semanas y continuamos la semana pasada (si no sabes de lo que hablo, te aconsejo que empieces esta serie de art\u00edculos por el principio, leyendo aqu\u00ed, aqu\u00ed y aqu\u00ed). El\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ConcienciaEnAcci\u00f3n"","block_context":{"text":"ConcienciaEnAcci\u00f3n","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/concienciaenaccion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black and white icon of a peacock","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Pavo-real-header.jpg?fit=1200%2C851&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Pavo-real-header.jpg?fit=1200%2C851&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Pavo-real-header.jpg?fit=1200%2C851&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Pavo-real-header.jpg?fit=1200%2C851&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Pavo-real-header.jpg?fit=1200%2C851&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9688,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/09\/14\/ventanas-al-mundo\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":1},"title":"Windows to the world","author":"binarybea","date":"14\/09\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Esta semana o\u00ed un comentario en la radio que me pareci\u00f3 curioso: dec\u00edan algo as\u00ed como que muchos j\u00f3venes de hoy en d\u00eda consideran que se puede saber m\u00e1s de c\u00f3mo es realmente una persona por los libros que posee que por su perfil en redes sociales. \u00bfT\u00fa qu\u00e9 opinas?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/diario-journal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_20260822_195817-e1789341732906.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9635,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/08\/31\/reto-de-30-dias\/","url_meta":{"origin":452,"position":2},"title":"30-day challenge","author":"binarybea","date":"31\/08\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00bfQu\u00e9 opinas de los retos de 30 d\u00edas? \u00bfAlguna vez has hecho alguno? Ahora que est\u00e1 a punto de empezar septiembre, es un muy buen momento para plante\u00e1rselo (y me acabo de dar cuenta de que hace dos a\u00f1os escrib\u00ed pr\u00e1cticamente lo mismo, cuando me propuse el reto de 30\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Herramientas"","block_context":{"text":"Herramientas","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/herramientas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_20260830_084440.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/woman-typing-writing-windows.jpg?fit=1880%2C1253&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3116429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4106,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/4106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}