Consistency – Celebrate Repetition

Important when pursuing what you wish for through effort and hard work – consistency.
Consistency is a trait useful in achieving long-term success. It’s crucial in mastering skills, forming habits, building trust and reliability, creating momentum, and maintaining progress. Consistency at its core is about improvement through repetition and drive.

Having consistency as a guide on your mind won’t simply impact whether you’ll reach your goal or not, but also help when setting your goals first and foremost.
Instead of thinking about getting healthy in general, you can think of a way to get consistent results. You might end up focusing on, for example, moving or cooking something healthy daily instead which is more tangible and helpful on your journey.

Effort and results are connected by a bridge of consistent practice. Stay focused, stay motivated, stay disciplined, and give yourself a reason to be proud of yourself every day by staying consistent.

The Hard Part About Being Consistent

Internal resistance can easily manipulate one into wanting to take the easy route.

‘Just today, I’ll continue tomorrow, but I’ll take a day off, only today.’

I think we’ve all thought that at one point, knowing very well it was a lie. Overcoming the version of yourself that’s trying to hold you back is the hardest part. But once you’ve done that sometimes, you’ll become better, you’ll become used to your task, and you’ll be even more proud for accomplishing your plans even though you didn’t want to.

To help you overcome your inner resistance, here are some tips:

• Small actions that are hard to refuse. Something that maybe only takes a few minutes, or something you can easily do without needing to adjust any of your other plans.

• Be honest with yourself. We often come up with excuses, lying to even ourselves just to feel less bad.

• Focus on creating a routine. Routines implement safety and control while becoming habits over time. At some point, they’ll start to feel natural and not bothersome anymore – fight against decision fatigue!

• Keep motivational reminders. To get some ideas, maybe read last week’s post >>here<<, or our post about motivational boards >>here<<.

The Negative Side – Consistency & Pressure

Even though staying consistent is important and comes with a lot of positive results, there is also a negative side to it – pressure.

Many easily fall into a trap of excessive pressuring, where they won’t allow themselves any time off, no matter the circumstances. This can have a huge negative impact on one’s physical and mental health in the long run.

Burnout, stress, anxiety, fatigue, continuing when one’s ill, losing motivation, joy, or passion for what you once loved and pursued, and many more.

The most important part is to focus on developing balanced or flexible consistency. Taking off one day is not the end of the world if you are truly not feeling good. In the end, whatever you try to be consistent with is most likely something you do to improve your life – this is all about you – so looking out for yourself should not be less important.

Stay committed, yes, but leave room for adjustments to maintain happiness and motivation on your journey.

How to Get Back in Balance?

Breaks as a Crucial Part of Each Journey (Be Consistent with Them):

Include resting periods, time you take off, and focus on something completely different. Embrace them as a part of your routine.

Whether you want to learn something, meet someone, or do absolutely nothing during these breaks is up to you – and there is no wrong option!

Rest ensures you have enough energy, physically and mentally, to fully focus on and commit to your goal.

Mental & Physical Health as a Priority:

Listen to your body and mind — don’t push through extreme fatigue or illnesses. I don’t think I need to explain why that won’t be the healthiest option!

When you can’t focus no matter what you do, go out for a walk, stop for the day, and revisit after. When you catch the flu, go lie down in your bed and rest. Mindfulness, exercise, proper sleep, or a good meal, always nurture your body and mind.

Prioritizing health is a great guide for a happy life and again ensures optimal performance in reaching long-term goals.

Patience:

Progress takes time! That’s what consistency is about, persistent and long-term efforts. Don’t be impatient and try to take shortcuts.

Think about someone trying to lose weight; they eat too little and experience a yo-yo effect afterward. Think of someone trying to build muscle; they train too hard while being inexperienced and hurt themselves with overtraining – now they aren’t able to continue working out for multiple months. Think of someone trying to build their own shop; they are nervous because of not getting the expected attention and start selling their products for too cheap.

This list is truly endless. So always remember: long-term success calls for long-term commitment.

The Positive Side – Balanced Consistency

Let’s get back to the positive aspects of consistency, the ones we know and love, the ones that bring us forward and help us improve. Shall we look at them together?

Sustainability:

Long-term, long-term, and long-term again, but yes, one more time, let’s say it all together: balanced and healthy consistency will help you to create sustainable impact in your life.

Growth:

Besides growth by reaching your goals, consistency gives you a reason to be proud of yourself every day. Therefore, you’ll form an improved perception of yourself, one of confidence and pride.

Opportunities:

Forming discipline while being consistent is valuable in many areas of life and can even open endless opportunities for personal and professional development.

Things to be more consistent with this Year!

Lastly, here are some things you can start on being more consistent with this year. The ones we have already covered in previous posts are linked (and written in bold). If you’re interested, just click on the name and you can read the post. So, please have a look! Maybe there will be just the right one for you! Enjoy 🙂