I have been overthinking consistency and you might be too.

A few ways to frame your mind about consistency.

Jan 14, 2024

Hi lovely people 👋🏾

Writing back to back? New year, consistent me? I hope it lasts.

We are at the start of a New Year, when we feel the most pressure to change our lives drastically in the space of 365 days (366 days this year). I want to write on consistency because some of us want to run at full steam, forgetting that life is a marathon, not as a sprint.

I like to think of life as stacks or levels; you move from one stage to another. For the stack to stand tall, you need a solid foundation. Laying that foundation is consistency. If you jump from one stack to another without proper direction, you are compromising the structural integrity of each stack. In my favourite anime, Hunter x Hunter, Gon and Killua go to Heavens Arena to train to become better fighters, pass each level and use the lessons learned to improve their fighting skills and move to higher levels.

Yes, you may want to change your life to become unrecognizable in 2024, a goal-getting productivity machine. You have a burning desire to change your life; this is where consistency comes in. It’s not enough to want to be consistent; you have to show up. Consistency is a long-term strategy that keeps the burning desire alive.

In the final days of 2022, I found something I wanted to change badly.

To go back to my original heartbeat- Reading. If reading were a sport, I would be a record-breaking champion. If reading were a subject, I would receive all the awards and accolades. If reading were human, I would sacrifice my most prized possession and devout my life to cherishing her.

Can you tell I love to read?

For me, to know reading is to know love. To know reading is to see life beyond my reality and travel the current of imagination into a world enriched by the pages, borne of another person’s boundless creativity and worldbuilding.

You see, I was the girl in the library so much; I could borrow more than one book per time in primary school. I was voted bookworm back-to-back in secondary school. I would sneak books into the dining hall to read while eating even (looking back, why was this an criminal offence?). I always had my nose buried in a book.

I was beyond heartbroken to see me living as a shadow of my former self. When I could not remember the last time I opened a book talk less of reading one, I knew I had to do something about it.

In 2023, one of my main goals was to read everyday for 365 days. I laid the groundwork by reading a whopping one book in December 2022. I was saddened because 14 year old me could read a 400+ pages in size 12 font in a single day, yet I was rejoicing that I read one book for a whole year. But I was also hopeful because I remembered how much I loved reading. It is one of my little sparks of joy.

So far, I have read for 10 minutes daily for 386 days

Here are some things I've learned about consistency along the way:

Build Routines.
You have to build routines around it. If I'm awake past 12am, I read for at least 10 minutes before I sleep; if not, I carve time for it during the day. You may want to listen to more podcasts; you can listen to it while getting ready for work, working, cooking, or during your commute. Make your goal a habit which becomes routine over time.
Stack it up.
Like a game, you need to start with something easy then move up with increasing difficulty. One problem some of us face is that sometimes, we want to move from level 1 to 100 without moving through levels 2 to 99. Take a cue from your favorite game - Candy Crush or GTA- the storyline does not begin in the middle. You learn about the backstory first. What is your backstory, and how can you use it to move to the next level?
It should be in your face.
If you have a goal, let it be in your face. My Books app is a widget I see daily. If you have career aspirations, write it on a board or put it in a vision board and make it your wallpaper.
Enjoy the ride.
If you want to set a goal to continue a habit or hobby you once loved, make it something you really enjoy. I knew that to go back to reading and enjoy it, I had to read the genre I truly love- fiction. I didn’t force myself to read self-help books, autobiographies, or other genres I have little to no interest in reading.
Pressure = Death in consistency (sometimes).
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I didn’t set out to read a certain number of books last year, I knew I’d get overwhelmed if I set a definite number and failed to reach it. I set a simple enough goal: to read for 10 minutes daily; even if the world burned, even if my world erupted in flames, I would do that.
Set out what works for you.
You want to be fit this year? You don’t need to go to the gym because everyone else is going. Find out what works for you - Pilates, home workouts, long walks, swimming. Explore the different ways to stay fit without compromising your fitness goals and hitting it everytime you set out to. Want to become consistent with saving this year but you're always busy? Automate the process so you don’t have to do it manually each week or month. Even on busy days when you forget, the funds will reflect in your emergency fund, your first trip fund or whatever your heart desires. It will reduce that feeling like a chore for you.
Consistency is discipline.
Consistency is discipline especially on hard days. In Heavens Arena, Gon built the discipline to fight, he trained and trained till he became a better fighter.
Know your priorities, really.
Set your priorities straight for the new year. If one of your goals is to learn anything this year, craft learning intentions that prioritize enjoying the journey over performance indicators. Don’t get caught up in what you are supposed to be learning or how, just enjoy what you are learning about. Go deep, go wide and go hard. You’ve got this 💪🏾
Identify blockers
I’m not as consistent as I would like on the platform because I overthink everything I write: is it good enough? Is it profound enough? Is it relatable? Is it deep? My thoughts were preventing my consistency, but I've learned my content can be - a state where it can be one of the above, any of the above, or none of the above.
Remember, when it comes to consistency, wanting it is simply not enough. You have to put in the work.