In my last posts here on the blog, on Instagram, and Pinterest, I've been talking a lot about consistency as super power, choosing to form healthy habits, my goals for this year, etc...
As I went through these posts recently, I realized that yes, I do explain to an extent why consistency is important, but I figured I had more to say.
So let's do it.
Learning through repetition
One of the main reasons why consistency is so key to succeding in anything, to building healthy habits, growing relationships, studying, exercising, and even starting businesses is because we thrive with repetition.
I don't about you, but I certainly can say that my memory is not a bucket that has a cap to how much information I can retain and that I only need a single drop of some information to retain it.
We can absorb a huge amount of information but it will all eventually start to fade out. Think about slowly forgetting the lyrics to an old song you used to like or words in a language you don't speak as much anymore.
Repetition is what makes the info stay in our minds because the more we repeat it, the more our brain uses it and the more it needs to be there.
Systems demand less energy to be executed
Repetition and consistency also work to find the best way to do a task.
Think broadly here, you can find a way to have a more meaningful conversation with a loved one, perform tasks at work, find a better route to go to work every morning, manage a team, cook a dish, train your dog, clean your house, you name it.
The more you do it, the more opportunities you have to find the best way to do it, right? So it also works to help us find the path of least resistance and best outcome.
When we do find that system, we spend less energy on a task, whether physical, mental, or emotional. We get to do more.
Quality will inevitably come with quantity
The master has failed more times than the apprentice has even tried. Practice makes perfect. Ever heard of those?
Consistency is not meant to be flawless, it is meant to be as effective as a building block. The more you do it, the better you get. The higher you build.
If you want to get good at something, simply start and practice. As you get more confidence and experience, you will inevitably find clever solutions to problems you had, find a better way to perform something and find a system.
As human beings, we are pretty great at identifying patterns that work and that don't work and we can filter through them, but your filter will only be as good as your experience.
A 1000-piece puzzle would not be complete without every single one
My sister-in-law and partner love to build puzzles with their family on their dining table. And I'm talking big. Think 1000 or 5000-piece puzzles of paintings, views, places, drawings, etc...
I certainly am amazed at the final product every time, seeing how intricate it is and admiring them for their ability to identify where each piece goes.
And no puzzle, big or small, is complete without every single piece of it.
That is to say that every single day you practice whatever it is you want to get good at is as important as the next one. Some pieces are easier to fit than others, but they all have their place in the bigger picture, quite literally.
Consistency can be learned
For many of us, this is a concept that does not come naturally. For me, it certainly didn't. I figured, when I was younger, you were either good or bad at something and that's it.
Some people are simply born to do XYZ and others are not.
That might be true to some extent in very specific topics that I can't even name right now, but for the most part, everything is learned and learnable.
It might take a bit more trying for some people. Math is that for me, while I have more ease in learning languages. For my partner, it's the opposite. But we both have the ability to try it.
Have you ever thought about consistency that way? How do you feel about it?
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