“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
Do I need consistency in my life? For me, when it comes to doing anything new, anything out of the ordinary it is all about creating habits. Usually it is something healthier than what my everyday norm is. It is hard to do anything consistently without setting any type of habit but then again it is hard to make anything a habit without actually doing it consistently. Weird? Like the old egg before the chicken and chicken before the egg debate I guess. So what worked for me so far is that the only way to make anything in my life a habit is to just start doing it, jumping right into it and start doing it consistently. But then for whatever reason I used to take “breaks” from being consistent.
Running/Sports and me is a pretty good example. Running/Jogging is all about consistency really. Like with any type of sport, once you are consistently doing it you improve. Simple as that. So I practices running every single day throughout my police career. I tried my hardest and I tried keeping it like that and all this was for a good reason. I loved it. I changed the way I ate, ran ever single day and of course improved. All I wanted was to run the big Marathon in Berlin. I truly loved my practice. As soon as school was over I put on my running shoes and I was out of the door. But then I let up on the consistency a little which totally screwed things up. For instance, friends invited me to party with them or hang out with them after work. It was raining after class or cold, snowing … blah blah excuses so I ended up only practicing once or twice a week. This is really great still and many would say this is better than nothing. But I missed so many days in between when I usually practices and I felt it became easier and easier to talk myself out of it. Sometimes I used to go running early in the morning before anyone was up in the academy. But then this switched to some sort of relaxing afternoon with some books and coffee. Nothing wrong with that, but it just became my new habit which in the end just did not feel good. I did run the Berlin Marathon however in 3 hours 34 minutes by the way. 🙂
I mean, honestly, we all know that living more sedentary and relaxing comes pretty easy and naturally. Like doing nothing and still craving this slice of pizza and those cookies at night. This is the reason why I need to make something a habit to just keep me away from this tendency of vegging (it is an action) out in front of the TV every night.
These days it is not so much the sports that I am consistent in. I practice Yoga and meditation at home almost on a daily basis which feels good and I love doing it. These days however, it is more about consistently writing on my blog. I found my true passion. Reading was always #1 for me but I think it has been replaced by writing for sure. And here I try to be consistent. My family and friends ask me sometimes how I can just consistently write and publish posts. Like how I find the time to do it or how I take the time to do it. Well, it is very simple. I love doing it so I find time. No matter where and when. I love writing – I really do. At night when everything is calm and my son is in bed or in the mornings, when it is even calmer and I have more energy after a good nights rest are my favorite times to publish something. Writing in English for me is also a practice that requires consistency to keep at it, to learn new words, to figure out different structures and sentences, to simply keep it a habit.
I am consistently and constantly learning these days how to improve this blog, my writing techniques and all this makes me happy and I need it in my life. It fulfills my days and all this is reason enough to keep going and keep up with it on a daily basis. Basically I think the key to success – or a big part of it at least is consistency.
I would like to know what you are passionate about. How important is consistency for you? Or what do you do if you fall off the wagon once in a while and end up on the couch every night? How do you get back on it?
