6 Practical Tips To Improve Your Consistency By 10X
Do you also want to develop a habit but fail at it consistently? I got you!
Consistency is hard, there is no doubt about it! 😧
Human beings perform around half of their daily task on autopilot.
In 2010, Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert used a phone app to randomly record what 2,250 participants’ minds were focused on at a specific moment. They discovered that the average person spends about 47% of their day on “autopilot”. 😑
Our minds hate it when we force them to do a new task. Our minds are lazy, they want to conserve as much energy as possible to deal with our survival instinct.
Since new tasks are energy-intensive, our minds put all the effort to make delays or even shunning our new hobby.
This is one of the fundamental reasons why most people give up on their hobbies early on as soon as the initial euphoria subsides.
So the question then arises is what should we do about it? Should we let our minds decide for ourselves what requires urgent attention and what not? Or should we work against the tempting maneuvering of our minds?
You must be thinking if our mind is doing it for us then it must be correct, but wait a minute, things are not as simple as they appear.
We need to be experts in at least 2–3 things to please our rational appetite and to feel valued in the competitive social world around us.
Thus, we can’t afford to be all lazy and inconsistent!
Here are the 6 common traits of people who are struggling with inconsistency.
Watch out for how many boxes you might tick and continue reading to get a hand on their practical solutions.
6 Common Behavioural Traits Of Inconsistent People
#1 They chase instant gratification
You are intelligent enough to know what I am talking about.
Instant gratification is the bane of our generation (I’m glad that I used this expression 😆)
These people seek pleasure in the present without giving a second thought to their long-term goals.
For example,
You have an entrance exam due next month for which you have made a strict plan. But you heard that your friends are going on a three-day trip to Dubai.
So you decided to go along as you believe in the “you only live once” philosophy (or in a more Bollywood manner: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 😆)
Hence, you trained your mind to not follow a good plan for a long period.
#2 Their emotions fluctuate with negative or positive feedback
They forget about their dreams and get carried away by momentary emotional changes. 😔
For instance,
You spent hundreds of dollars to look presentable at a conference presentation which is critical for your promotion but one of your colleagues said that your choice of dress color is too loud.
Bang! You forget about your presentation, and promotion, and keep questioning your dress selection!
The same goes with follower counts (and lots of other stuff). You become so obsessed with the dopamine spike that the likes and comments of your followers give you that you begin to forget your long-term writing goals.
#3 They have no clear answer to their “Why”
This is a trademark trait of inconsistent people.
They don’t have the clarity of why they are doing whatever they are doing.
Sometimes, they start to do something on the advice of someone. Other times, Other times, they get motivation from a 5-minute video of a motivational guru.😆 Or get impressed by the perks and privileges of some of their friends.
Often, their motivations are money, fame, cool trends, and hashtags.
Hence, they lack the inner calling for that particular task and thus get demotivated by initial setbacks.
#4 They make vague goals with no specific long-term plan
The devil is in the detail, they say, and they are right about it.
Ever wonder why so many of us failed at keeping our new year resolutions?
Drum roll!! 🎵 🎵
We don’t make a detailed plan!
For example, when we say that we will learn the Chinese language in 2022; it is vague.
But when we say that we will learn the basics of the Chinese language by January 31st in order to equip ourselves enough to converse in Chinese in a Chinese-speaking country — it is specific.
It confines the timeframe and domain of our goal and makes us more likely to follow it.
But, inconsistent people don't think this deep.
#5 They do their tasks alone
They want to sort out everything by themselves.
Most of the time, their attitude is ego-driven: “I don’t need anybody’s help, I can do it myself”, we often heard this from inconsistent people.
Often, they are fearful of their shortcomings. 😨 They don’t want to let other people see how poor they are at something.
Hence, they shut the door of valuable help from experts in the craft and get frustrated by repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
#6 They assume a straight path to success
When they speak of a thing or make a plan about a task, they are viewing it from their ideal self.
Their successful morning routine looks like this: I would wake up at 5:00 a.m., take a run for 30 minutes, take shower at around 6:00 a.m., have breakfast by 6:30 a.m., practice the skill for 2 hours, and then would go to the office by 9:00 a.m. …
And what happens the next morning, they wake up around 9:00 a.m barely making it to the office on time 😄😄
Success comes with all its unique hardships.
In practical life, there are millions of factors that are acting upon a person of which he is neither in control nor aware.
Since inconsistent people start a thing by only considering the success factor, they get frustrated when things don’t go their way
If you are still reading this article, I am 💯 sure you have the willpower to go beyond your initial hurdles and become a more consistent person.
Here are 6 practical tips which will hurry your consistency journey.
Six Practical Tips For Improving Consistency By 10X
#1 Seek a solid answer to your “Why”
Why you are doing something is more important than how you will going to do it.
‘Why’ gives you an internal drive; it gives you a motion to seek the answers for your ‘What’ and ‘How’.
It is only because of your ‘Why’ that you show up every day to perform a particular task even if you don’t feel like doing it.
As Simon Sinek has put it,
If you know the Why, you will find the How.
#2 Think long-term and create good habits
It sounds cliches but a long-term perspective is imperative for getting a consistent behavior.
If your goal is only to get selected for the college’s basketball team, you will revert to your old routine once you get into the team.
You need to work on your tasks until it becomes automatic. And that is only possible if your goal is sustainable for a long period.
#3 Bring clarity to your tasks and goals
Divide your long-term goal into short-term, achievable tasks
Make your tasks specific and removes the vagueness on which your lazy mind thrives.
When you plan beforehand that you have to take 1 swimming class every day at 4:00 p.m. sharp, and when you have already hired a cab that would always come to your home at 3:25 to pick you up, your consistency becomes a done deal.
#4 Build a system having the core elements of accountability and feedback
When setting up small daily and weekly goals, don’t forget to make yourself accountable.
let your family/friends know that you have decided to do so and so tasks for this week, and asked them to make you held accountable.
Or announce your goals on your social media.
No one wants to feel embarrassed in front of his/her social peers and would do everything to save himself/herself from this humiliation.😆
#5 Take yourself outside of your assumed limitations
I am not good at remembering birthdays,
I am not a good learner,
I get lost when it comes to directions…
These are all absurd limitations that we put onto ourselves.
Don’t fall for these!
#6 Practice mindfulness ☀️
It gives you control over your thought process and makes you watchful of the tricks that your mind plays.
Mindfulness makes you more present at the moment.
It reminds you of your long-term goals.
When you are mindful, you will not stop by to watch a game of cricket on the weekend when you have an exam on Monday.
Remember,
Success is not about avoiding the inconsistencies of life, it is more about managing them!
Thank you for reading!
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