The Truth About Consistency
It is officially New Year’s: the time when 2024 commences and people decide they want to fix their lives.
This was their first mistake: waiting until New Year’s to commit.
We hear the classic resolution everywhere — to start working out. A regular gymgoer enters the gym on January 1st to see it’s packed.
A couple of weeks later, a bit emptier.
More and more newcomers quit.
By the time February rolls around, all the resolution people have given up.
What I’m getting at here is all these people expect January 1st to turn them into some reformed and productive person — this just isn’t how it works.
They get in the gym for 1 month before falling off as they’re running solely off New Year motivation.
Once they run out, they refill the next New Year.
People need to realize making a statement and saying that you’ll be consistent doesn’t work.
You have to work to build that consistency and dedication yourself.
In this article, I want to go over:
- More on how consistency is misinterpreted
- How to build it properly
- Why it’s important
It Can’t be Given — Only Created
Developing positive traits is an effort to build character.
With this said, character is only developed through the things you do, say, think, and believe.
Just as character isn’t something that is given to you, the skill of consistency also falls in this category.
It isn’t gifted long term; only you can cultivate long-term consistency within yourself.
Just as a speaker becomes a great speaker by speaking.
A great writer by writing.
A person becomes very consistent by building up their consistency.
Someone who hopes to be granted it without building it themself can be labeled as lacking self-reliability.
To become consistent, self-reliability is crucial.
Some may argue that while being self-reliable is important, can’t, for example, the motivation of friends going to the gym with you be enough to make you consistent? The answer to that is yes, but if you want the best for yourself, then build the character that will get you to the gym even when you have to go alone.
Because most of the time you will be going alone.
How to Build It
Consistency, like most virtues, is only built efficiently when working to improve it over the long term.
That said, the single most deterring factor in becoming consistent is the ego. For example, we have the typical New Year’s resolution of improving diet:
- Bobby aims to eat clean for 3 months in a row, even though he’s been on an unhealthy diet for years!
Bobby fails his diet days into 2024. His ego convinces him he should be able to eat healthy for months (despite not doing so for years), and he becomes discouraged.
- And he gives up. “2025 will be my year”.
If you want to be consistent, you must silence your ego.
If Bobby wanted to start meditating in 2024, he must note that he meditated zero times in 2023.
He begins meditating for all of 2024. While he does skip some days, weeks, and even months, he totals 60 sessions throughout the year.
That’s 60 more than last year, which is progress.
Then at the end of 2025, he did 160 total sessions.
2026: 245 sessions.
2027: 365 sessions. Bobby is now consistent.
Know that this is what it takes: time and silencing of the ego.
Why We Need Consistency
Consistency is the key to efficient progress and longevity.
Now some don’t care for these things — understandable.
To those who do care, they ought to dedicate some time to scaling this trait.
The beautiful thing is that virtues such as discipline, happiness, and consistency can be contagious. This means that being consistent influences others to do the same.
Considering our society is consistent with drugs and junk food, it’s no surprise as to why crises are popping up all over.
Do yourself and perhaps another a favor, and demonstrate through action the art of consistency and other powerful virtues.
People can change by the actions or inaction of others. With this said, if people could:
- Do their work in class
- Head to the gym 6 times a week
- Display gratitude for everything
They may light a spark in someone.
These people can’t rely on influence, though. It’s up to their own will if they’re going to pursue that spark. As I said, consistency isn’t given, but it can be influenced.
Conclusion
The main takeaway here should be that consistency can be frustrating to attain.
The truth is that consistency can’t be obtained; it is only performed. Consistency never lasts forever.
Feeling good about your progress, no matter how significant is a matter of reflecting on how many days you should have up a year ago compared to now.
This is why I recommend that you record your habits in some way. Notion is a good one.
Always remember that the time it takes for you to become more consistent is dependent on how much you’re willing to commit.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll see you in the next article.
