7 Practical Principles For Unbreakable Consistency
Showing up every day to make it count.
What does it take to show up and be consistent with your goals?
The start of the year has us thinking about resolutions and the goals we want to accomplish in the New Year.
Lack of consistency is the killer of those goals.
How often has it become a joke that the people who join the gym on January 1st are gone by the middle of February? Or that other resolutions fade into forgotten dreams within weeks?
The biggest deterrents to staying consistent with goals are taking on too much at a time and not having a real plan in place.
Really, it just comes down to showing up every day.
Figure out what you want to do and just do it.
You’ll have good days, and you’ll have bad days. Some days you won’t want to put in the work at all.
But you become the type of person who is consistent by being consistent.
It’s the same with discipline, fitness, writing—with anything.
Here’s What It Takes to Stay Consistent
1. Show Up and Practice
Treat each opportunity to show up as if it’s training for the biggest moment of your life. This type of deliberate practice gets you oversized results compared to everyone else who’s just punching the clock and expecting an outcome.
Some goals may be accomplished with minimal effort, but most require a higher level of dedication.
2. Load Management
Don’t take on too much at one time so that you have the energy and focus for your most important efforts.
If you’ve set a resolution that you’re serious about, you’ll need to spend time most days working on it.
That book won’t write itself.
The subscribers won’t join your newsletter without consistent effort.
The diet won’t meal prep and eat itself.
The mountain won’t climb itself.
You get the point.
Consistency is the name of the game, and having too many competing priorities robs you of it.
3. Don’t Let Your Mental State Dictate Your Work
When I’m tired or having an off day, I’ve learned not to judge myself and give up too soon.
Even if I’m unproductive for 30 minutes while my brain shifts into gear, sometimes those become my most productive days once I hit flow.
Don’t prematurely label your efforts. Save the reflections for after the day is done.
More often than not, if you haven’t mentally given up on the day, you’ll come out of it successfully.
4. Rituals
Have a ritual to start your work and a shut-down routine for when you’re done for the day.
This applies whether the goal you want to be more consistent with is work-related or something personal. Better work boundaries support both areas of your life.
When you shut down from work, it frees you up to focus on the high-quality leisure time that also contributes to your goals.
If you want to learn to play the guitar, you’ll need that time freed up to focus and practice.
5. Timing
Be consistent with your work timing, reflecting when your focus and energy are at their peak.
If you’re a morning person, do your most important work right away. If you work better in the evening, structure your days around that.
Schedule demanding extracurriculars to follow this pattern as well. Don’t try to do Spartan Race training after work when you’re exhausted.
6. Learn Basic Productivity Systems and Stick to Them
We often get caught up in looking for the secrets to productivity, but the real secret is to stick with the system you’ve got for a very long time.
As long as your productivity system isn’t broken for the work you do and the things you need to focus on, don’t change it. Simple systems are all it takes.
Productivity can become a procrastination trap.
If you know about Bullet Journaling, Building a Second Brain, or GTD, you’re good to go.
7. Plan the Night Before
A part of my Done for the Day ritual is planning my top three actions for the next day. This helps me get straight to work in the morning without having to think about it. And it also helps me unwind at night by getting work off my mind.
I used to have an elaborate morning routine until I started doing this.
It’s a game-changer.
If you’re a morning planner and spend too much time getting into the routine of the day, try this strategy. I can’t believe how long it took me to switch to planning the night before so I could jump straight into my most important task in the morning.
Those are my best principles for consistency. Now it’s your turn to take what resonates with you and use it.
I’ve also written more about many of these principles throughout the Building a High Flow Lifestyle series last year. Start with the category you feel you need to work on the most.