Keys to Consistency

This is the time of year where many of us are celebrating the big moments—the culmination of things we have been working towards and the commencement of brand-new beginnings. 

And while the big moments are exciting, consistency is the real hero when it comes to creating the life you want.

In this episode, I’m sharing the 7 keys to consistency that will help you to create more of what you want in your life. 

The Appeal of Beginnings and Endings 

We love new beginnings and finish lines. That’s where all the glory and positivity happens, and it’s where our brain wants us to focus our attention. 

But when we are changing our lives and transforming ourselves, we have to stop putting so much attention on the start or the finish. We’ve got to fall in love with all the millions of moments in between. 

Because as a human, you’re always in a constant state of progression.

Today, I encourage you to see yourself as someone in the process of making a continuous string of choices. And when you string together enough choices that align with your ideals and goals, you will create the life that you want. 

There’s no glory in this, It’s just the quiet, seemingly unremarkable choices we make every day. But these are the choices that add up over time to create our lives.

7 Keys to Consistency

Courage

We vastly underestimate how much fear and dread our brain can produce for the things that we want. You decide what you want, and your brain immediately steps in and offers you inadequacy and overwhelm.

I pray for courage more than anything else in my life. We can’t expect that fear and dread to go away. We have to choose courage in the face of it. 

Candor

Candor is all about being more honest about what we are signing up for and acknowledging that anything we want to create is going to involve negative emotion.

If you decide you want to get in shape or start a business, you might only be thinking about the culmination and what it’s going to feel like in the end. 

But most of the time, it’s not going to feel like that best part. Sometimes, it’s going to feel pretty bad.

What do you think you’ll need to feel in order to accomplish your goal? How bad are you willing to feel to do this thing? What will be the worst and hardest part? Are you willing to do it to create the experience you want?

Curiosity

You have to be way more curious and way less judgmental of yourself if you want to be consistent. 

Along the way, there are going to be days where you don't do what you said you were going to do. Instead of being mad at yourself, condemning yourself, throwing up your arms and giving up…get curious.

Why did it happen? Why didn’t you follow through on the action you planned? What were you thinking and feeling?

Coaching

If you really want to create change in your life, you’ve got to get your brain out of the way. 

Your brain's whole job is to deter you, get you to stop spending energy, stop risking failure, stop feeling so bad and start seeking pleasure. 

You need to be good at managing that brain, and you need the tools, capacity and help to be able to do that. And the fastest, most efficient, most loving way to do that is through coaching. 

Commitment

What I think really creates consistency is negotiating with your brain as little as possible. 

So rather than deciding each day if and when you’ll get a workout in, set a longer timeline, like an 8-week training plan, and commit to it. 

Now it’s non-negotiable. The plan shows exactly what you’re committed to doing. After the eight weeks are over, you can re-negotiate and make your next plan.

Quit Comparing

Comparing our progress to other people's makes us think that they must be doing it right, and we must be doing it wrong. 

You’ve also got to stop comparing yourself to your own expectations. It’s so easy to think you should be somewhere else by now, but this thought just discourages you and makes you want to quit. 

The gap between where you are and the “finish line” is usually bigger than you want it to be. It's too easy for your brain to say this is pointless, it doesn't matter, we should just give up, we're wasting our time and energy, this only works for other people. 

You’ve got to bring your brain back to reality and recognize that wherever you are is exactly right. You just have to keep going from where you are. 

Stay Current

Current is the only thing that counts when it comes to consistency. Consistency is about making the right choice, right now. That’s all that matters.

Our brain wants to project way into the future, and it doesn’t believe that we can keep going. 

As long as you make the choices of this moment in alignment with the things that you really want, then you will create what you want. You will become what you want. You will make the results that you want. 

If you use these 7 keys to help you be consistent, you will increase your capacity for anything you want to create in your life. 

Instead of waiting for the big moments, recognize that your life is going to be created in the little moments, the little decisions and the choices that you make. 

You’ll Learn:

• Why we need to stop focusing on the finish line
• 7 keys to help you be more consistent
• Why consistency isn’t actually about the long term (and how to think about it instead)