Consistency

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What does it take to be consistent? What does it take to work towards a desired result and do that frequently? These are two of many questions that I and many people who are trying to build consistency continue to ask.

Consistency – the quality or fact of staying the same at different times.

I have wrestled with this idea of consistency from the time I realised its necessity. Being a type one person who leans more towards structure and predictability than spontaneity, I have this natural desire to build consistent habits. I am interested to learn about what drives type 2s to be consistent.

I think whether type 1 or type 2, most of us desire a certain level of consistency with the way we approach life and its challenges. Probably because we realise that most good things in life are a result of consistent effort. Contrary to some beliefs, nobody becomes a sensation overnight. What we see as overnight success usually is a result of someone’s consistent effort to grow and develop themselves over a long period.

The funny thing is while we know the benefits of being consistent, many of us still struggle with building consistent habits to some degree. I have always found it hard to understand why that is. It’s almost like the path of consistency comes with a lot of inward and outward resistance.

I think a subject like this one can have answers that are subjective to each person. We all have things that aid or take away from our ability to be consistent and sometimes our motivations are unique to us. I do think, however, that there are things that can aid all of us in our pursuit to be more consistent at something. There are some things that at this point, have been helping me that I think have the potential to be helpful to you as well. I’d like to discuss those things with you.

One thing that is helping me be more consistent at the moment is reconciling my efforts with my passions. I think it’s very difficult to assert consistent effort towards something that you’re not passionate about. I’ve found that a lot of the times when I was struggling with consistency, my real struggle was that I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing. Most times there’s an element of passion in the goals that we pursue. Sometimes we can get a bit clouded, and this can hinder our ability to be consistent. I think taking time to reconcile our efforts with the elements of passion that led us to pursue those goals is very beneficial to building consistency.

Secondly, I believe that there is power in the little things. One thing that I’m learning about building consistency is that it’s an incremental ripple effect. People are more likely to be consistent with the big things if they are consistent with the little things as well. Sometimes the things that are smaller and easier are the ones that help us build the habit of being consistent. It’s easier for someone to consistently run 100 metres every day to start with than to go from not running at all to running 10 kilometres every day. In our pursuit of building consistency, it’s important for us to not neglect the power in the little things. Sustainable habits are formed when we commit ourselves to incremental progress and not drastic leaps.

Thirdly, I think one of the most important things that we need to realise is that the foundation of consistency is discipline. It’s not all the time that we’ll feel motivated to do something. A lot of things that produce good results, may not be backed by a huge amount of motivation. Sometimes, there’s no motivation at all. Consider someone who is trying to budget consistently. The motivation to do so may not always be there. Sometimes there’s may even be a temptation to “go with the flow”. And I’ll admit, it’s very easy to get bored because discipline includes even the moments when we must do the things that seem mundane and unexciting. We love the spectacular and that’s understandable. Who doesn’t want to feel excited about a project, idea, or goal? I think our natural inclination is to be excited about our pursuits. I’m realising, however, that consistency has less to do with our feelings of excitement and more to do with our commitment to discipline.

I think the conversation of consistency is an evolving one, as many things are. As we grow and develop, we begin to realise the things that work and don’t work for us. We will never get it all perfect but there’s a level that we can attain that allows us to function effectively and achieve the goals that we want to achieve. Most importantly, I believe that we can all learn from each other’s experiences with regard to building consistency.

As such, I’d like to hear from you. What things have helped you along the path of being more consistent?

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