5 Keys To Be More Consistent

The consumer society has become a society that is consumed in its immediacy. There is no patience. There is no room for waiting, boredom, or the long haul. We are surrounded by messages, of course concise and quick to read and assimilate, that promise us to achieve anything immediately and just by wanting it. Here. Now. Already. I want it and I have it. I ask for it and it comes to me, and, if it can be, all in one click.

We can lose weight, speak languages, progress in our professional career or achieve this skill just by closing our eyes and wishing it very hard or by applying simple recipes collected in lists. If we do, everything will happen as if by magic. Magic!

People have a magic that can offer us everything we propose.

To be honest, the only certainty in all these promises is magic. Because, after all, people have a magic that can offer us everything we propose, but it is not a magic of wands, hocus pocus and rabbits in the hat. It is the powerful magic of constancy, perseverance, persistence, day to day.

It is not a trick that deceives the senses, it is a magic that unites us with nature, because it is in everything beautiful that surrounds us. Let’s not forget that it is the day to day that builds the eternal beauty of the flower. It is time that gives the sea the strength to shape the rocks. It is the sum of the days that creates a habit in us and incorporates it (perhaps the similarity is not a coincidence) to our own nature.

Recover constancy to grow

Why not use what has made us grow in every way? Because thanks to perseverance we learned to read, to write, to relate to others, to build a true love, to be specialists in any subject. Undoubtedly, everything important that we possess is the result of that perseverance that, now, driven by immediacy, we do not value in the way it deserves, that is, with the responsibility of those who have power in their hands.

The time has come to achieve those things that are important to us, and to do it in a lasting way. It is not about doing huge acts of sacrifice, it is about that, as Pythagoras said: “With order and time you will find the secret of doing everything, and doing it well.”

And that is precisely the biggest obstacle: time. Being able to give the necessary time to each thing to flourish, dedicating enough time to each act so that it becomes part of us. Harvest time and, in due time, reap its rewards. And, as in everything, you have to de-dramatize.

Anyone can go on living without being constant, patient and persevering. We can continue without achieving many of the things we would like. That’s how it is. However, why not give it a try? Why not decide? If we say yes, these steps can put us on the road, and whenever we talk about roads, the important thing is to walk them. It depends on us.

How to be more consistent

1. Choose

Let’s start by choosing something important, something meaningful to us that, for whatever reasons, we have not been able to incorporate into our routine. It can be going to the gym, running in the morning, learning a language, writing a novel, playing the guitar … What depends on each one, the important thing is the choice, free and conscious.

A choice is already part of an inner commitment. It is knowing where we would like to go, and that always implies a reflection and an analysis that, even if we stay at this point and do not move on, it is always beneficial.

2. Discover the power of small

It is very possible that the choice we have made is something that haunted our head and that, in addition, every time we think about it, we are assaulted by a certain feeling of sadness or slight anger for not having achieved it. Well. Now it will be different, because we are going to put into practice the power of the small, of the minimum, of the almost insignificant. That is the power of nature and the same that we are going to use.

Because it is not about making great efforts. It is not about, for example, if we have set out to write a novel, fill 100 pages in one day. No. It’s about writing a page for 100 days. That is to say, we already know that in a day of inspiration, strength and energy we can make a great effort in whatever we set out to do, but now it is about doing very little for a long time. And that very little is the key to everything. We must be able to start with something so small that it is impossible for us to fail.

As Victor Hugo said, “most men do not lack strength, but perseverance.”

Now let’s imagine that we have decided to run every day. It would be enough to start by putting on our slippers. And that’s it. Sounds easy? Yes, but it is also powerful. Because then we’ll go out on the street for ten seconds. And then twenty. And without realizing it, day by day, little by little, we will find ourselves running the distance that benefits us the most, and we will do it as a routine, as part of ourselves.

3. Flee the Forever Trap

Change is a process that always accompanies us. And that always and forever, being the destiny of all change, is also one of its main enemies.

Forever is too long. It is a mental trap. There is no forever and we only get to feel trapped in too long a time to cope with it. It is better to stay with the here and now. If before we have discovered the incredible power of the small, of the almost insignificant, now we must bear in mind that today is what counts. Tomorrow … we’ll see.

It’s that putting on your shoes, writing three lines or two words, learning a new word in that language that we want to learn. Today. Just today. And when tomorrow will be today again, but removing from our mind the vast time that forever represents, let us remember that the key to the magic of constancy lies in the little things, even in the small intervals of time.

4. Use flexibility

Another of the secrets of perseverance lies in being flexible, both with mistakes and with time. While it is true that it is better to assign a specific moment of the day to repeatedly doing what we have decided, it is also true that we must be able to adapt and if, for whatever reason, we must change the schedule, do it without trauma.

We even have to be flexible about making mistakes. We may fail one day. Yes. It is not desirable, but the important thing will be, the next day, to get back on the road. And that’s it. Without guilt. The flexible adapts, the hard breaks in the face of adversity. In the same way, so that our perseverance does not crack at the first difficulties, we must adapt to the circumstances.

5. Don’t look at the results

Once we have started our unstoppable perseverance and see each other on a day-to-day basis (and not counting the days, as it is difficult for those who have managed to quit smoking to know how many days it takes), it is important not to be too aware of the results. When we plant a seed we are not continually lifting the ground to see if it has grown, because if we do, the seed simply does not grow.