Let’s Talk Lifestyle: Consistency

Hey, y’all! Feels like it’s been a minute since we spoke!! I was in West Virginia last weekend, which was pretty great. Got to see a close friend, eat some SCHMACKING BBQ, and spend some time in nature. Naturally (da-dum-tiss), I was traveling back on Sunday and didn’t have time to write. Which incidentally, ties into today’s topic: consistency. So pull up a chair and let’s talk consistency.

Y’all. I LOVE that Aristotle quote so much

I want to do a blog post specifically about habits later on, but it goes without question that habits can’t be built without consistency. The two topics are pretty tightly coupled, but consistency is the abstract concept behind habit. We can’t build unconscious behaviors without repeatedly doing those activities. Of course, there are things we can do to make that easier. But the setup, planning, and thinking don’t matter if they aren’t coupled with work.

Unfortunately, that’s the hard part. The word work has such a negative connotation associated with it. But the truth is that putting forth effort is really one of the most positive things we can do if we’re doing it in a calculated and intelligent manner. There can be no growth without stimulus, and consistent action compounded is one of the best, if not only ways, to get the results we want.

Fitness is an amazing example of this

Picture the fittest person or the strongest person you can imagine. They didn’t get that way overnight. Thor Bjornsson wasn’t carrying trees from birth. Eliud Kipchoge didn’t begin running sub-2-hour marathons. Peter Attia had to train to swim the Catalina channel. The list goes on and on. But the point is that people who do great things start from humble beginnings. And the only way to get those results is to consistently put in work to get them.

This applies to everything. We have to consistently act in a way that reflects who we want to be or what we want our future to look like. That means we also have to have a clear idea of what we want, so we can reverse engineer and figure out the steps needed to get there. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Consistency and Discipline go hand in hand

Which makes sense right? There are times where we’re not going to want to do something. It might be working out (like me last night), reading, or sending that email we know has to get done. My favorite quote from Muhammad Ali is “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'” And to me, that speaks volumes. Cause it’s tough to do what we know we should all the time.

But that’s what consistency is about. There are things we can do to make it easier, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a walk in the park. Sometimes we’re going to have to struggle and fight. Sometimes we’ve got to be the man in the arena.

When we fall off……

And we will, it’s important to get back in the saddle asap. I said”when” and not “if” for a reason. Nobody’s perfect. There are plenty of times that I’ve faltered being consistent with things, from working out to writing and managing this blog. We all have those moments where we screw up. But the cool thing about consistency is that we don’t have to stay there. We can learn from our mistakes and get right back to it.

Sometimes, we have a tendency to be like “Oh well, I ate a donut, time to eat a dozen”. That’s effectively like digging a hole, realizing you’re digging and saying “I’m already digging, time to dig to the other side of the planet”. But the truth is that we don’t have to do that. We can stop and correct whenever we want. And just doing that is a victory. Consistency follows

If you know anything about physics, you know an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. This is more commonly called inertia. Consistency is moving inertia. And sometimes things come up that halt that motion. The sooner we get the ball rolling, the less force is required. But the longer we stay in the resting state, the harder it is to start up again. So we need to plan for change-ups so that we can stay on the path. And get back in the saddle when we fall off.

At the end of the day…

We’ve got to put in the reps. Consistency can exist without action. So we need to act in a way that begets our desired future. We are what we repeatedly do. So let’s do the things that make us better people. Let’s consistently journal, workout, and meditate. Consistently be trustworthy and kind. Consistently make excellence a habit.

I want to thank you for talking humans with me today. How do you stay consistent? Let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe and share. Catch y’all next week! Later!!