Consistency doesn’t sound very “sexy,” does it?
It’s not quite as inspiring as grit, dedication, genius, or natural talent. Actually, it’s kind of like when someone calls you reliable instead of dynamic, intelligent, or impressive. Gee, you pretty much called me boring, but thanks. But don’t let the beige name fool you!
Every single person who ever achieved success in any form did it thanks to consistency – from actors and musicians to entrepreneurs and athletes.
Consistency is about showing up without fail and sticking to your guns even when you don’t want to. So how exactly does one achieve that? With the right habits, of course!
How To Create Consistency With Good Habits
How Are Habits Formed?
Unless you are ahead of the game and already know about how to purposefully create good habits (high five!), then most – if not all – of your habits were formed accidentally. And chances are, there are a few unfavourable ones in the mix!
Humans are creatures of routine. Yes, even the ones who claim not to be. We all have our little rituals that we have slipped into over the years. We inadvertently perform them again and again until they became part of our programming.
So, what can you do about these subconscious habits?
Become A Habit-Forming Queen
The hardest part of forming positive, growth-oriented, healthy habits is getting through those first few weeks. This is particularly true if the first steps of a new habit are unpleasant (like waking up early or going for a run.)
Bullying yourself into being consistent and diligently practising your habits every day may work for some people, but often sheer bull-headedness isn’t enough. People like easy stuff, so why not just make your good habit so ridiculously easy to do that you couldn’t possibly consider wiggling out of it?
Making Good Habits Easily
If you feel overwhelmed by a new habit, what will keep you doing it until it becomes automatic? Instead of focusing on the magnitude of the task, focus on the art of adopting a habit itself.
Let’s say your goal is to meditate for 30 minutes before breakfast. I can already think of a ton of reasons to skip that in the first week (headache, sick kids, too much work). And once you’ve skipped it once, you are more likely to give up entirely.
But how about one minute of meditation? Surely, no matter what goes on in your life, you have time to meditate for one measly minute, right?
Remember that the goal isn’t to get the benefits of that meditation immediately. It’s to build consistency by showing up every day until it’s part of your routine. Once that’s happened, you can start levelling up to two minutes, five minutes, and before you know it – 30 minutes of meditation is just something you do without blinking an eye!
Making Good Habits Stick
The same applies to anything else you want to do. Smash out two pushups every evening before you shower as the start of an exercise routine. Cook a healthy meal once a week to start eating clean. Commit to two sentences a day to begin a writing habit.
Stick to it for 30 days until you don’t even consider not doing it, then add more.
Insider tip – the opposite can work for eliminating unwanted habits. Use your inner laziness to your advantage by making it really difficult to do said bad habit!
You will start to see yourself as the kind of person that sticks to things. Every new, positive habit builds this new, consistent, kickass persona. End result = it makes it easier and easier to achieve your goals. It’s like a whole big snowball of consistency!
Managing The Moment
Remember; regardless of what you want to achieve in the future, it’s what you do now, in this very moment, that determines where you will be in the next week, month or year. We can’t control the past or the future, but we can manage this very moment, and what’s more empowering than that?
A great way to keep your habit forming consistent is to add some accountability around it. If you have to tell someone that you didn’t get around to your life-changing habit this week, then it can be super motivating to dig in the following week.
My Accountability Tribe could be the perfect place for you to start forming those good habits and consistency. We are a bunch of kickass women taking small steps towards business success every week. Sound like something you are interested in? Then jump on a free strategy call with me to see if it could be the right fit for you. Book a convenient time to chat here.
