Habits, a routine, a practice - whatever you call it, it’s consistency isn’t it? I have been thinking a lot about this. Do you find it impressive? I do - I find it awfully, very, very, very-much-so impressive.
I can do many things, at many different times (not multi-tasking; that’s another story) - but to do the same thing, something specific and deliberate, in a regular pattern, again and again?
That’s the win for me.
It’s just so elusive and impressive to me. Two ideas:
- When you come across someone who is doing something - anything - consistently, maybe it would be a worthwhile exercise to acknowledge their determination (to stick with something hard), their toughness (to deal with an awful boss) and their moral strength (to not want to let others down by quitting). Even if someone is in a job they hate, they’re still showing up consistently.
- If you personally struggle with consistency, maybe the secret is to start out being really consistently bad. Like, “I will eat a block of chocolate every day no matter what.” or, “I will respond to every third text message with a picture of a cat, no matter if it’s my boss, mum or Telstra.” or, “Every time I brush my teeth I will throw the toothbrush in the toilet.”
That’s the win for me. If a Genie popped into my life and proclaimed in their raspy-yet-sing-song voice, “HERE, find you a million dollars or THERE, find you the ability to be consistent. Now CHOOSE, mortal!” … I would choose the latter.
Me? I’m trying for some consistency on this blog. As they say - only time will tell.