I once read somewhere that consistency is what converts dreams into reality.
This was an eye-opener because it really put things into perspective.
If you think about it, without consistency, your dreams are merely wishful thinking.
You can dream all you want, you can plan all you want, but success can only be achieved if you walk the path, day after day after day… without any excuses.
As Anthony Robbins once said, “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”
If you want to build something meaningful and significant, you have to be and stay consistent.
There are no two ways about it.
Sadly, so many people, despite having infinite potential and abilities, fail to achieve their goals just because they aren’t consistent.
If you are serious about manifesting your dreams and goals, you should first focus on building your consistency.
Yes, it can take some time and patience, but the payoff will be quite worthwhile.
Below, I will talk about some of the most effective ways you can be more consistent.
1) Do You Really Want To Do It ?
This is a no-brainer.
When you do things you love, you love doing those things.
You don’t have to force yourself to do things you enjoy.
You just do it out of your passion.
In fact, you look forward to it every day. And that’s what keeps you consistent.
It’s the love for that thing that keeps you going forward.
So, before you commit to a goal or a dream, ask yourself if it is really something you want to do.
Ask yourself if it will excite you every day, even if things get tough.
Will you be able to sacrifice other things in life to see that dream come true?
If your answer is yes to these questions, go ahead and commit yourself to that dream, and don’t even worry about being consistent.
2) Do Things One At A Time
When it comes to house chores, I think we should all strive to multitask as much as possible.
It saves time and makes you a lot more productive.
However, when it comes to the more important things in life, such as your career, a good habit, or some other meaningful pursuit, I would say it’s better to stick to one thing at a time.
You see, your mind has a limit on how many things it can handle at once.
If you give it too many important things to deal with at the same time, it will get overwhelmed.
The result will be that you will give up on most of those things.
So, focus on one thing, and master it before you move on to the next.
3) Keep It Simple, Silly!
Have you ever noticed how passionate you are when you first start pursuing your goal?
You are so fired up that you want to do everything you can to achieve that goal.
Obviously, this is a good thing.
However, if you’re not careful, you might end up making things more complicated than they need to be. We often overthink things….
Let me give you an example to explain what I mean.
Let’s say you want to lose weight.
The best way to do it would be to take care of your diet and do some exercise every day.
But since you care so much about this goal, you might make things much more complicated.
You might try to research the best exercising techniques, foods to avoid, supplements to take, gym equipment to buy, “hacks” to speed up the process, and so on.
It is a way to avoid taking action and procrastinating.…
Moreover, doing all of this can overwhelm your mind and make it more likely for you to quit.
So, just keep things simple and get things going.
Other things can be added as you make progress on your path.
4) Don’t Strive To Be Perfect
This point is related to the last one.
As mentioned above, your passion for your goals can make you overthink things.
It can also make you feel like everything has to be perfect.
As such, you become fussy and start getting entangled in the tiniest of details.
Again, this makes things harder than they need to be and causes you to give up midway.
For example, if you are setting up a blog, you can easily get lost in all the details.
You might want to make the font, images, design, user interface, and everything else perfect.
Of course, this is not a bad thing per se, but it keeps you from advancing to the next stage: posting content.
At each stage, this need for perfection makes things more difficult, and with that, it becomes more likely that you’ll quit.
5) Don’t Expect Immediate Results
One of the most common reasons why people are so inconsistent these days is that they expect immediate results.
Since we live in a world of instant gratification, most expect to see the fruits of their labor straightaway.
This is not how things work when you are pursuing your dreams and desires.
Most of the time, you only start seeing results when you have already put in a considerable amount of work.
I mean, take the example of Elon Musk.
He put in two decades of unimaginable levels of work before he became the richest person on the planet.
Even though his companies were revolutionary from the beginning, the impact of the revolution has only now become clear to the public!
So, if you want to be consistent, keep in mind that results might take some time to show up.
6) Set Realistic Goals
Another very common reason why people leave their pursuit midway is that they set highly unrealistic goals.
And this becomes clear to them after they have been in pursuit for a while.
I mean, if you are earning ten thousand dollars right now, and if you set a goal to earn a million dollars, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Such a large jump doesn’t usually happen.
So, it’s important to set realistic goals.
Take things incrementally and manage expectations.
Going back to the example, you could first aim to start earning twenty thousand dollars.
Then you could set the next target at fifty thousand, and so on. Yes, it will take you time to reach the end goal of a million dollars, but at least you will get there.
7) Take Care of Your Health
It is easy to forget about your health when you are working towards your dreams.
It is easy to ignore the needs of your body and mind when you are passionately pursuing your desires.
But, as we are eventually reminded, your health plays a very important role in your consistency.
Without it, you wouldn’t even be able to do your daily chores, let alone your important tasks.
So, take care of your health.
Not only physical but mental and emotional as well.
Take breaks from time to time, take weekend getaways, spend time with your family, get ample sleep, eat healthily, do exercise, meditate, and so on.
It’s important to pace yourself in your pursuit.
After all, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
So, run and rest accordingly. 🙂
8) Don’t Get Disheartened By The Rough Patches
We all know by experience that life is a rollercoaster ride.
There are times when everything happens so smoothly and there are times when even the smallest of things take forever.
This is just how life works.
So, when you start working towards your goals, you need to remind yourself that there will be good and bad days both.
So, when you do get into a rough patch, you won’t feel like something unexpected has been dropped onto your head.
You will be prepared for it, and you certainly won’t get disheartened by it.
This will help you become more consistent with your efforts.
You will strive with the perspective that your current situation doesn’t matter.
What matters is whether you are working towards your goals or not.
9) Prioritize Things In Life
There are a million distractions in life.
And they all try to take your attention away from what is important.
Of course, this can be hugely disastrous.
It can constantly waste your time, effort, and even money.
So, it is important to learn how to prioritize things in life.
And you do that by making a list of all the important things that you just can’t compromise on every day.
You can also learn to say no more often.
Many times, we give in to requests from other people even though we don’t actually want to say yes. It could be for an invite to dinner, assisting in someone’s project, hearing someone’s gossip, and so on.
Just say no to anything that seems wasteful and commit your time and effort to your dreams and goals.
10) Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself If You Falter
Some people are really hard on themselves when they do something wrong.
Maybe it’s just the way they were raised.
Maybe their parents were too hard on them for the tiniest mistake.
These people, when they eventually falter on their path, can become very disappointed with themselves. They might even feel like they don’t deserve to manifest their dreams.
If you happen to think like such people, you need to adjust your perception a bit.
Being consistent doesn’t mean that you will never lose momentum or that you will never veer off course.
Even the most consistent people go through times when little to no progress is made, and they are completed distracted by something else.
This doesn’t end their story though. The important thing is that they get back on track and continue with their mission.
Think of Thomas edison who is the inventor of the light bulb. it took him many failures to eventually find the perfect combination that worked…..
11) Create A Schedule For Yourself
Human beings are creatures of habit.
This is how we manage to follow our routines day in and day out.
In fact, we prefer it that way.
So, it’s only logical that we use this trait of ours to our advantage.
If you want to become more consistent, make it into a habit!
And how do you do that? Well, create a schedule for yourself that includes all your important tasks and objectives.
Design your average day in such a way that you get ample time to work towards your goal.
Let’s say you want to lose weight.
You can block off half an hour in the morning for a workout, half an hour to eat a nutrient-rich diet, fifteen minutes in the evening to drink green tea, and fifteen minutes to walk around your house (or outside) after you come home from work.
Just start small ( even 5 minutes to workout to begin with) and build from there 🙂 the most important thing is to start and take action….
12) Break Your Big Goals Into Smaller Ones
This is one of the most effective techniques on this list.
You see, your mind plays a crucial role in your consistency.
And you really have to work with it (and at times trick it) to get it to cooperate.
When it comes to your goals, one way of doing that is to break your big goals into smaller ones.
This has many advantages, but the biggest one is that it prevents the mind from feeling overwhelmed.
When you have smaller goals in your sight, the mind is more motivated to go after them.
It thinks that it won’t need to put in much effort to achieve these goals.
As such, consistency becomes a natural byproduct.
13) Reward Yourself For Achieving A Milestone
This is an extension of the previous point.
When you have smaller goals, you can treat them as milestones to your larger goal.
This will give you a sense of where you are in your journey, how much progress you have made, and how much progress you have yet to make.
It will also allow you to celebrate and reward yourself whenever you achieve a milestone.
Why is this important, you ask?
Well, the mind likes to be rewarded.
It’s like a child in that way.
So, the more milestones you achieve, the more you can reward yourself.
And the more you reward yourself, the more motivated your mind will be to go after the next milestone.
A reward can be anything you like. It could be eating your favorite food, going out with friends to celebrate, binge-watching a tv show on a weekend, etc.
