In the post entitled “Why Do Depletion Days Happen?” I asked the question - why do I have some low willpower/endurance days?

There must be a reason. And in the post entitled “Right on Schedule: Emotional Breakdowns a Week into New Habits” I talk about noticing a trend in emotional fluctuations (normally combined with low willpower/endurance) when exerting discipline to start a new habit.

Lydia has noticed that this also occurs the second week of really pushing a habit. In fact, a lot of my recent questions has to the efficacy of the entirety of the project could be laid at this door. After all, I had been roughly a week into the DiSSS protocol for writing when I essentially had a melt down.

But with my recent travel I’ve also noticed that in the past I’d often have the wherewithal to perform habits while traveling but would be exhausted the day or two after even when I had plenty of time to do them.

I’ll call this Delayed Endurance Drain. What is this? The theory is that if we use the engine metaphor, where forward momentum equals habits, and mastery, drag is caused by higher degrees of Endurance that overwork the system’s threshold. Too much, and drag forces (ego depletion, endurance depletion, negative emotions) come into play.

In this case the endurance load takes a while to settle. For a new habit, it may be week two, as it seems to be the case for pushing a new skill towards mastery. For travel, it’s the day after that the load settles, causing setbacks.

What’s this mean? Protocols should be enabled during these breaking points - lowered thresholds, or even a strategic planned “weekend” for those days to conserve strength.