The streaks don’t matter

Mine are Duolingo and days not drinking, but they can be about anything: exercise, food, gambling, drinking, mediation or yelling at seagulls.

While they can a motivating force, the streaks themselves aren’t important - they’re just a carrot (or a stick).

The important thing is picking ourselves up when we break one. When the counter resets to a goose egg and we have to make that horrible a leap from zero to one all over again.

That leap between nothing and something - the spark between the terminals - that is where the magic is.

As we come into a time of year when it’s hard to protect all our rituals and routines - let’s remember that the numbers themselves aren’t important. It’s what we do with them that counts.