Sometimes I back down too. I have said that directly. Some days I want to stay in bed. I know what it is like to be working hard and not see progress every time.
I have also been very forceful about going out and practicing. Both parts are in the way I talk about my own experience.
The Sunday-night grocery recording
At the start of that video, I was talking about excuses: being tired, not feeling right, waiting for a better day. I was recording content daily at that point, which was a new challenge for me, and I still went into the grocery store to show how I had practiced.
I explained what I had done before going out, then found a little conversation with someone looking at cookies. It happened with the first person I spoke to in that demonstration.
I told the viewer I was proud of the trying and the commitment. There wasn't going to be a perfect day when all of it felt easy.
What I did when I missed my earlier daily practice
In the account of my Once-a-Day Challenge, I said I would make up a missed day by talking to two people the next day. I was relentless about working on my speech.
That is the commitment I described for myself. The later daily recording challenge was a different project, meant to help share what I had learned.
The encouragement included difficult days
In the encouragement video, I said people face battles and keep going, and then I corrected myself: sometimes we all back down, including me. I said some days I wanted to lie in bed all day too.
I wanted the person listening to know I understood how hard it could be. Progress was not happening all the time. I had gone through a lot of failure before beginning to have some good speech, and even then it wasn't every moment.
I also had to change what I did afterward
I was hard on myself. A difficult attempt could turn into another night of criticism. Learning kindness, forgiving mistakes and making time for something enjoyable had a place in my work too.
When something went a little better, I wanted to notice it. What had I managed to say? What had I said to myself afterward? That small experience could otherwise get lost while I judged the entire day.
So the fuller account contains determination, missed days, attempts that failed and times I rested. I kept learning and refining what I could use. Those are separate parts of what I have described going through.
I wanted a life in which I could talk more and enjoy it. Trying again mattered to me, and so did how I treated myself through the process.