7 Simple Steps for Building Consistency
Achieving Mastery in Your Chosen Field
Consistency is the key to achieving mastery.
And striving to achieve mastery is a worthwhile endeavour.
Mastery comes with lots of benefits like money, fame, access to important people, etc.
However, achieving mastery requires consistency and consistency is not easy.
Once the excitement of launching a new goal wears off, it becomes harder to show up consistently. This is when people abandon their gym membership or find an exciting new online course to learn the same skill.
So, in this article, I will uncover 7 actionable steps you can take to build consistency to achieve mastery in your chosen area.
But first, let’s understand why consistency is so hard.
Why is consistency so hard?
The answer is simple.
You are focused on the outcome instead of the process.
You spend time fantasizing about the results you want to achieve instead of putting in the required work.
However, as Muhammad Ali said:
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
This means that the results we seek are rooted in the process.
Another great depiction of focusing on the process is Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history.
At the peak of his career, he trained every single day for 5 years. This helped him rack up a record 28 Olympic medals, 23 of which were gold.
He embraced the process and pushed past what is called “The Dip” to transition from amateur to master in swimming.
Understanding The Dip in the Process
“The Dip” is a term coined by the bestselling author Seth Godin in his book by the same name.
Godin explains The Dip as “the long slow slog between starting and mastery.”
Everyone would love to become a master in their field, but few are willing to put in the required effort.
Think of the skill gap between the young amateur Phelps and the decorated Olympian he became.
Like most, his journey from starting to mastery started with the goal:
“…to do something that nobody had ever done before…to be the greatest of all time.”
Phelps equally experienced The Dip during his journey. But he knew becoming the best required consistent effort. He said:
“There are days you don’t want to do it (swim); everybody has those days. But it’s what you do on those days that move you forward.”
According to him, at the peak of his competitive years, he:
“…went five straight years without missing a single day of workout. 365 days a year, every single day I was working.”
So, even the greatest achievers experience the dip. The difference is that they come out on the other side through consistent effort.
The question now is:
How can you also build the required consistency to achieve your goals?
7 Tips for Building Consistency
Maintaining consistency is built on a foundation of two things — purpose and routines.
Let’s take a closer look at these and some other helpful tips for building consistency.
1. Outline your purpose for wanting mastery:
A strong purpose is foundational to achieving any goal.
Write down why you want to achieve mastery in your field on a piece of paper and paste it somewhere you can easily see it.
This will serve as fuel to maintain consistency in your practice on those days when you don’t feel like it.
2. Create a roadmap to reach mastery:
This roadmap is a plan that will take you from your current level to your desired level.
Your roadmap should outline the following:
- Your goal and the metrics you will use to track your progress
- Specific steps you will take to achieve your goal, e.g., learning resources, training schedule, etc.
- Timeline for reaching your goal
- Frequency of progress reviews to monitor your progress.
Having a plan makes it easier to take action consistently towards your goals.
For an easy guide for planning your roadmap, refer to my article, “6 Simple Steps for Effective Planning.”
3. Get enough sleep:
The body needs rest to function at its peak and mastery is all about reaching peak performance through consistent training.
So, try to get 7–8 hours of sleep every night for optimum rest.
Also, try going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. Maintaining a constant circadian rhythm helps you get more restful sleep.
4. Be present in the moment:
Stop fixating on the outcome and enjoy the process.
Remove all distractions when practising your skill.
Focus on the next rep in the gym, the next line of code, or the next stroke of the keyboard as you write.
Focusing on the present moment aids in the encoding of new information in your brain.
Remember that good things take time to build, so have patience and trust that your efforts will yield success.
5. Anticipate the dip and plan for it:
The dip is the biggest challenge to consistency and it is inevitable.
This is why outlining your purpose for pursuing mastery is so important. Defining your “why” at the start will prevent you from quitting when the results are not rolling in as much as at the start of your journey.
Also, remind yourself that achieving mastery was never meant to be easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it.
So, commit to sticking to your roadmap all the way.
6. Get an accountability partner:
An accountability partner can be in different forms.
For example, my family and friends always look forward to my weekly articles and this keeps me motivated to deliver consistently. So, in a way, I am accountable to them in my journey to mastery in writing.
You can equally find a literal accountability partner who checks in on your progress periodically.
I recommend choosing someone you respect, either a like-minded friend or mentor, to increase your accountability.
Such a relationship equally can be a two-way street with both of you keeping each other accountable in your respective endeavors.
7. Don’t dwell on mistakes or missed days:
This last tip is so important, so let it sink in.
The practice ground is the room for making mistakes and learning from them. So, don’t dwell on mistakes, rather focus on improving your skills.
Likewise, forgive yourself when you miss a practice session. We all slip up from time to time. Life happens.
Don’t let one missed day of practice turn into two or more. Dust yourself off immediately and get back to work.
Cut yourself the same slack you would cut a friend and move on.
The longer you take to get back to your roadmap, the more difficult it will be to build back your consistency.
Forgive yourself for missing a practice session, and get back to work.
