March 31, 2026

 

Today should have been my 601-day Wordle streak, but alas I almost cried on Saturday morning when I realized I had forgotten to do Friday’s Wordle and broke my multi-year streak. If you aren't familiar with Wordle, it's a New York Times word game that is pretty tricky to get daily and also has no freeze streaks. If you forget to do it or miss one time, your streak is broken…a real-world example of ALL OR NOTHING!

 

I knew this day would come, my longest streak prior to this one was about 150 days. Similarly, I forgot to do it one day, but 150 days seemed manageable to do again - 597 not so much! 

 

If you've ever forgotten to do something or made a simple mistake that you ruminate on, you know the feeling I had most of the day Saturday. I was replaying the day in my head thinking of all the opportunities I had to simply double checked that I had completed the daily puzzle. I was also spiraling a little because I knew I wouldn’t care enough to keep it going this long ever again.

 

The feeling of failure for missing a day is one of the many reasons I created Light 56. I knew there had to be a way to make progress on your goals with grace and flexibility to not be all or nothing. There are some good daily games that do a better job than NYT with this including Duolingo and LinkedIn games. But this whole experience isn't about simple online daily games, it's about how we can get caught in a spiral of expectations and then disappointment when we feel like we've failed. 

 

To get out of my Wordle spiral, I got curious to understand how this would fit into the LIGHT model and it did!!

Here's how I applied the LIGHT model to help me get out of that mental spiral and remind myself what really matters…

 

L - doing Wordle fits in the Confidence slice of the feeling ✨Light✨ wheel. I never considered myself a good speller, but Wordle has helped build confidence in that area, this is why I care about something that may seem so silly to someone else.

 

I - breaking the streak actually allows me more space to be ✨Intentional✨ with some of my routines like reading in the morning and the 24-hours no tech day I’m planning in April.

 

G - I caught myself being unkind to myself and took it as an opportunity to practice ✨Grace✨. I also gave myself time to whine about it and grieve a little, which made a lot more sense when I realized what feeling my Wordle practice was feeding.

 

H - in my ✨Heart✨ one of my biggest purposes is to always be learning and that’s the real reason I’ve been doing Wordle. I love looking at skill & luck scores afterward to see how I can improve the next time. The learning is more important than a streak and the good news is I can still do that! The streak doesn't impact my learning.

 

T - with less pressure to keep my streak going I can actually follow the principle of giving myself more ✨Time✨ and use Wordle’s archive feature to go back and do missed puzzles (which is exactly what I did on Saturday).

 

This is a simple example using all five of the LIGHT principles, but I have been using it more and more to think through things in my day.

 

Would love to hear which of the LIGHT principles you'd like to learn more about. 🫶

 

 

PS - there is a Full Moon tomorrow, April 1st. I love that it is on the first day of the month, it makes it a perfect time to celebrate March and let go of what's no longer serving you as you head into April!

 

I'm releasing the fear that something frustrating happens every time I'm planful. The link to my Moon ritual guide is below if you want the simple prompts to release what is no longer serving you!

 

If you want to be intentional about starting something new in April, check out the free 5-day Experiment & Feeling Light Wheel or join us for just $27/month in Light 56 Circle.

Light doesn’t mean living where nothing is dark, heavy or difficult.

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Light means being surrounded by of all those things and still being calm and grateful.

 

Light 56 Circle is more than a membership;

it's a continuous journey of finding your light.