Why You Can't Be Consistent: 2 Principles to 10X Your Consistency

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn't … pays it.” — Albert Einstein

When you think of the Wonders of The World you might think of The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Wall of China or the Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

But there’s something to be said about the effects of compound interest or compound action.

Warren Buffet started investing when he was 11 years old and is worth $117B in 2023, according to Forbes. If Warren Buffet wasn’t consistent with his investing, he might not be a billionaire.

Think about it for yourself, a transformation in your life could be the 9th Wonder of the World.

Not everyone will know about it sure, but you will. If you stay consistent you could completely transform your life and yourself.

What I got Wrong About Consistency

Whenever I was starting a new habit or certain actions to achieve a goal, there was a target I aimed for. This target was how I measured my progress and it was a number.

When I started writing, my target was writing for 45 minutes.

When I was building my first business, my target was to send 10 cold emails daily.

But I quickly ran into a problem. Two problems actually.

The first was my flawed thinking around consistency. I thought consistency meant EVERY SINGLE DAY. There’s no doubt that this can lead to more problems.

I quickly grew tired and experienced resistance towards these actions. I dreaded doing them but knew I had to. It took more energy to get me to do it than actually doing it. I burnt out… a lot.

The second problem was the mental chatter about my targets. If I didn’t write for 45 minutes or send out 10 emails, my mind was my own worst enemy.

I would come down on myself and I would come down on myself hard. I would think I was a failure and someone who didn’t deserve my goals.

Things were even worse if the days completely ran away from me. I would feel so bad that I wouldn’t do anything for a day.

The voice came back the next day and said I needed to do twice as much to make up for the previous day. This quickly led to inconsistency and me stopping all day.

And until I took a step back to reflect, I realised I had forgotten a crucial lesson.

Rome wasn’t built in a Day

Nothing great happens overnight.

It happens over time and that can be a long time.

I had mistaken consistency with this instant gratification.

I expected to get results soon just because I had done something for a ‘certain’ amount of time.

I realised that I was doing the tasks consistently to build a habit or improve but to get a result.

I had to redefine my idea of consistency and applying two principles allowed me to develop insane consistency.

The Two Principles

#1 Consistency over Intensity

The mistake that I made was going too hard too fast.

This led to me doing something for a day and then stopping. This cycle never lets the momentum build.

Consistency is about being able to do something over and over and over without losing enthusiasm or energy.

Writing for 45 minutes a day was easy in the beginning because I was highly motivated, but as the motivation reduced, my ability to sustain that did too.

Instead, a better strategy for me was to start with 15 minutes a day for 5 days. As I stayed consistent with 15 minutes, I could incrementally increase it to 20 minutes, 30 minutes and to where it is now at an hour.

The helpful tip here is to have a minimum standard. Make it so simple and small that you can’t fail. Then over time, the target can build.

So though my standard meditation time is 45 minutes to an hour, my minimum is 20 minutes. By having the 20 minutes as my bare minimum I can stay consistent and increase on it if I want to.

#2 The Two-Day Rule

Remember how I said that my definition of consistency was doing something every day? Yeah, that had to change.

Depending on the habit or behaviour, I couldn’t do it every day and some of them weren’t behaviours I wanted to do every day.

This included cold outreach. Most businesses operate on weekdays, so it didn’t make sense to send emails on a Saturday or Sunday.

I’m a person, not a robot.

Instead what I implemented was a Two Day Rule.

What this rule looked like was that I was allowed to miss a day.

No judgement or coming down on myself. But I can’t miss two days in a row. If I miss two days in a row, that’s an excuse.

Especially when the intention is to be consistent, letting days go past without doing the habit or behaviour is a lack of commitment.

This line of thinking helped me to plan and prioritise my days better. To manage the urgent and the important and to show up for myself.

It’s easy to look at someone successful like Warren Buffet and think he got lucky when the truth is that he was consistent.

There is no secret to what the extraordinary and successful achieve from what anyone else could. They just do what most wouldn’t do, one of those things is staying consistent. Doing the same thing over and over and over.

Getting better each time. Collecting data on what works and what doesn’t and staying consistent with what does work.

Consistency builds momentum and with enough time can lead to exponential growth.

All it takes is the willingness to show up again and again and again. Until it happens for you.

— Shana

If you’re a creator or entrepreneur who wants to grow your business without burnout or overwhelm with systems, book a free call with me here.