This *One* Thing Is The Reason Why You Struggle With Consistency

Photo on Unsplash by Lena Taranenko

I did everything the books told me.

Make a routine, sleep and wake up early, drink water, exercise, plan, dream, and whatnot.

But nope. Nothing worked. Back to zero! AGAIN!

My theory of being lazy and inconsistent always comes down to being overwhelmed.

You need to take it one step at a time. Or to be more precise, just have one very clear goal, motive, or objective. Just one, I repeat. And it should be very, very basic.

I have an appropriate story to explain this. As a child, I took part in a sack race competition. And my only concern was to not fall flat on my face. Everyone around me was trying to jump farthest and fastest. I saw them fall flat on their faces — it was fun. The opponents kept getting disqualified, and guess what, your girl grabbed a bronze medal.

Here’s another story to make things clearer.

As a child, I used to visit my village a lot. To meet my grandfather. Haven’t been there since he died. But those were fun trips. Going to the market was such an adventure because you had to walk, A LOT! It was climbing mountains, crossing forests kind of walk. And I (an over-energized child) would run. Yes, run! For 60 seconds straight. Then I would run out of breath and rest for 10 minutes until my father reached me. And every time he would tell me to walk in a slow, steady, consistent manner to not run out of breath.

Do you see where I am getting with all this?

In the first story, I had clarity. It didn’t matter what others were up to, my goal was clear to me. Crystal clear!

In the second story, I had the energy and motivation, but there was no consistency. And you know what they say, consistency beats intensity every time!

You need to be clear, you need to be consistent. It’s the ideal state.

But you’re not any of this. What you are is overwhelmed. We need to eliminate that.

Let’s start with reasons that make us overwhelmed…

1. Setting unrealistic goals
2. Information overload. It’s called paralysis by analysis
3. Comparing yourself to other people
4. Being terrified of failure
5. Second-guessing yourself
6. Perfectionism
7. Poor time management
8. Too many responsibilities
9. Emotional stress

What happens when we get overwhelmed?

1. Get scared
2. Binge-watch, eat, and scroll
3. Listen to an unhealthy amount of music, which causes a headache
4. Cannot concentrate
5. Indecisiveness
6. Memory issues
7. Sense of helplessness
8. Get irritated easily
9. CAN NOT SLEEP!!!!! All caps because OMG, so relatable. When I am not at peace, I just can’t sleep. And when I don't sleep, how do you expect me to get any work done?
10. Both productivity and quality of your work decreases.
11. You withdraw yourself from all kinds of social interactions
12. Headache, fatigue, and increased anxiety are other symptoms.

This is why everyone suggests meditation. It makes you more aware. Awareness of what’s happening inside your body. What makes you feel angry, happy, excited, and jealous? Take a mental note of those things. Then align your goals based on that.

What mostly happens is — we like something and decide to do that or become that in the heat of the moment. Without much information on the subject. Know your strengths and weaknesses. You may be a fieldwork type of person, or sitting alone doing intensive research for hours type of person.

What if you are a research-type person doing fieldwork all day? It’s natural for you to procrastinate. You are doing the wrong thing already.

Everything again comes down to clarity.

Know who you are. Be clear on that. Then pick a goal and be consistent.

It takes time to get that clarity and to find your voice. But once you do, it is one of the most liberating experiences ever.