You need these two elements simultaneously to grow
Balance between consistency and variability. We need both.
Consistency is required to build stable and robust habits and practices. However, there’s also a human desire to pull away from consistency. We get bored easily, we seek novelty. If we do something long enough, it becomes routine, un-challenging and not fun to do.
If there is too much routine, too much consistency and we begin to feel way more comfortable with it than we should, we become uninteresting, we become complacent, we deteriorate our ability to adapt to new situations and circumstances. If you believe that change is constant, than it shouldn’t be hard to see how routine and consistency can be harmful.
If there is too much variability, we feel unsettled, confused and have a deteriorated ability to plan for the future. The time taken to plan seems like an exercise in futility. Why should I plan if feedback from experience tells me that it’s not going to be relevant by the time we reach that future?
A routine is something you do consistently.
Stability is required for core practices. These practices are your fall back plan. They are like the foundation of a building, they keep you rooted in the face of external environmental variability. It keeps the building grounded when there is extreme weather or earthquakes. Things you don’t have control over.
Living in different environments, cultures, especially the ones that challenge on on some level, introduce variability that makes you more resilient in the long term.
A strong and long lasting habit or practice requires consistent actions. If you keep exercising the same muscle everyday, it will likely maintain its strength, but you will reach a plateau. However, to grow, you have to introduce some variability. Consistency will only take you so far if your objective is growth. Consistent improvement will make you grow.
The human body is automatically in a fast growth cycle in the first two to three decades of life. Even if we don’t have a desire for the body to grow, they body will do it’s thing. It was designed to grow during that period. It’s almost like forced growth. After maturity, physical growth subsides. Most of your personal growth after physical maturity is non-physical: mental, social, spiritual. However, this is something you drive yourself. If you have a desire for mental growth then you undertake activities that will provide you that output. If you don’t then you stay the same. However, I think staying the same will frustrate you, your desire to seek novelty is still there. How do people manage that? Perhaps, I am more growth driven but a large number of other people may not? What is the split like? How can we find out? I don’t know the answers but perhaps someone else already knows, or is willing to delve more deeply to find out.
