Miss one day, never two

Most of what we ask bends. This rule does not.

You will miss a day. Everyone does. A child is ill, a flight is delayed, you drink too much at a wedding and the morning is a write-off. A missed day is weather. Do not feel anything about it at all.

Two missed days is different. Two is a pattern forming, and the third comes far more easily than the second, and the fourth is when you stop calling it a break and start calling it a phase, and the phase becomes the new normal without anyone deciding it should. Every habit any of us has ever lost went that way. Almost none of them ended with a decision to stop.

So the rule is exactly as it sounds. Miss one day if you have to. Never miss two in a row. If you missed yesterday, today is not optional, however small the version of it has to be. Two press-ups, a glass of water and the curtains open counts. Missing counts too, and it counts against you.