Trying to be Consistent?

I wrote a few things I think should help to frame your mind about consistency.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Hi my love 👋🏾

How have you been? I know it’s been a while since I wrote to you and well, life has been lifing. I’ve been dealing with inconsistency, I’ve been really unmotivated to do so many things. I’ve been in my head for a long time. And in my head, I’m thinking instead of just succumbing to the way I’ve been feeling, let me just try to channel my energy into something else and be really intentional about it.

We are almost at the half of the year in about two days or a day. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but lately I’ve been a little hard on myself because I feel like I’ve been lounging and I’ve not done so much for the past five months. And you’d agree with me that at this point, some of us start to feel pressure and the need to change our lives drastically in the remaining 215 days (I actually believe a lot can still happen within those days). And that’s why I decided to write on consistency because some of us want to run at full steam, but let’s not forget that this life ehn, is like a marathon, and not a full sprint.

I actually like to think of life like you’re building a house. For the house to stand firm, you need an extremely solid foundation. Laying that foundation is what can be called consistency. If you jump from one process to another without a proper direction, you are compromising the structural integrity of the house.

I get it that you may want your life to become unrecognizable in a good way for the remaining days of 2024(I want to make something meaningful from my life, in the remaining part of this year). Which kinda means that, you have a desire to change your life and this is where consistency comes in. And you know the funny thing about this consistency thing, it’s not enough that you actually want to be consistent; you have to actively show up. Consistency is a long-term process that keeps that desire alive and burning.

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Let me tell you one of my goals for this year, I made a decision to buy books and read because I realized that I love reading books. And so in February I bought two books to read. And trust me when I say I just started reading the second one last week. Now, I am personally not happy about it because it just makes me feel some type of way that I’ve not read the books I bought and I still want to buy more. So if I buy them, would I just be admiring them and not read them? And that’s one of the inconsistency I’m talking about. But I’ve also come to realize that I have to be kind with myself and take baby steps. Another goal I set was to send weekly newsletters and well, you can tell from my last newsletter that it’s been up to a month I sent the last one.

Let me give you a list of some things I’m learning about this consistency thing;

1. Learn to have a routine.

You just have to create a routine around those goals. I’ve been thinking of sending a newsletter and today(May 29th) after dinner, I wasn’t doing anything anymore and I just thought why not just start writing. I started writing around past 10pm. I just had to create time for it. One of your goals might be to build a relationship with God, and you think there’s no time. You can always listen to early morning devotionals in the morning while prepping for work. Okay, you’re rushing out in the morning, you can always listen to it while at work or even on your way (I used to do this when I was working). The long and short is for you to make your goal a habit which then becomes routine over time.

2. Build it up.

Remember my house building analogy earlier, where you start from the foundation (technically, you have to start with clearing the site) but what I am trying to say is that, you need to start with something easy then move up the chain with increasing difficulty. One problem some of us face is that sometimes, we quickly want to move from level 1 to 100 without wanting to move through levels 2 to 3, and so on. I reently came across a post on Instagram about this Temple Run game that year. Remember how we start running with it being easy at first and as you keep running, it sometimes gets harder, thats it. The storyline never starts in the middle. You sometimes have to learn about the backstory first. What is your own backstory? How can you use it to move to the next level?

3. Let your goals be loud in your face.

If you have a goal, let it be everywhere in your face. One of the mistakes I made at the begining of the year and it wasn’t really a mistake. It was just because of the way the year the started for me, but I didn’t make a vision board of my goals, and I’m making one already. If you’re like me that has career aspirations, you can write it on a board or put it in a vision board and make it your wallpaper. The goal is to make your goals be in your face at all times.

4. Do what works for you.

You want to go into tech this year? You don’t need to do the regular thing everyone is doing just because everyone else is doing it. Find out what works for you especially based on your passion and skills. There are many no-code tech roles that will pay you that big money, so long as you’re patient and you put in the work- Product marketing, Content marketing, Graphics design, UI/UX, Technical writing, etc. Explore the different ways to go into tech without you having to compromise anything. Just do what works for you.

5. Know your priorities. 

You can still set or adjust your priorities straight for the next 215 days. If one of your goals is to learn anything this year, come up with learning intentions that prioritizes you enjoying your learning journey. Try to just enjoy what you are learning about and don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself.

Bonus points

• Identify blockers

• Try to be disciplined

• Don’t put pressure on yourself

Remember that, with consistency, it is very easy for you to want and desire it, but you have to be ready to put in the work, and be disciplined.

I’m rooting for you and I hope the next 215 days brings in more for you.

See you next week💞

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