always rebound
In his post, A Miss, Kaushik shared this insight:
This advice from Atomic Habits rings true to me: never miss twice.
How resilient is "never miss twice" compared to a prescription such as "always rebound"?
Emergencies happen. Missing a couple of days in a row happens more often than you think. Thinking consecutive misses start a pattern makes it more likely to occur. Letting consecutive misses invite a return seems kinder, more flexible, and less prone to self-flagellation.
Each approach has different stakes. Missing twice can snowball into missing many more days, but you have failed early. Failing to rebound can add pressure with each passing day.
Never feels limiting, always feels limitless. Instead of grinding myself down through successive ultimatums, I can consistently loop back to open arms. Let's shine a spotlight on the opportunity to return to a task, not failure.
Yet, some see pain, rock bottom, and other negative states as motivation to rebuild themselves. Who am I to deny them that power?
James can tell me what he wants me to do, instead of what to avoid. After I have failed, "never miss twice" can fall flat. "Always rebound" gives me a battle cry to break through doubt and inconsistency.
But what if failure alleviates pressure that holds me back from success? Starting fresh stops me from clinging to a hope that may never be realized.
Rebounding means taking shots even if I miss some. Better to try fixing what's wrong than steep in it or shy away from hope.
However, a player can't rebound a shot they never learn how to, nor try to take properly. They can only warm the bench so much before they lose their finesse, let alone their spot on the team.
Consistency aids survival. However, surviving with looser consistency is better than crumbling under such strictly enforced consistency. As an example, meeting an objective when the consequences are disastrous sounds unhealthy.
There are applications in which strict consistency is required for success. For life-and-death or other pivotal scenarios, there may not be any room to fail.
I find visualizing my path forward favorable to confining myself into what I see as a mental prison. Your perspective may be the same, the opposite, or something entirely foreign to me.
Be as consistent as you can be. I think that's what counts the most.