Iāve left the cult of consistency. Iām shifting my motivation from numbers and frequency to the joy of creating instead. In my last post, harvest time, I shared some things Iāve learned during my first year in Oaxaca and several were about consistency. A few days after sharing that episode I saw a post on instagram that read āLong-lasting and effective transformation comes from passion and love not shame, guilt, or avoidanceā. This and other social media posts related to consistency started to enter my ether, affirming my thought that when a topic enters in my mind to write about itās also spawned into many other minds too, like a collective remembrance. The three points I shared on consistency in that episode were:
Thereās power in consistent solo practice that is multiplied tenfold in the right community.
Routines have a better chance of success if theyāre simple and require minimal tools. The purpose of a routine is to serve you, not just to be able to say you did it. When a routine becomes stale, donāt be afraid to throw it all away.
Honor your inconsistent energy. Witnessing your cycles of ebbs and flows is key to learning that no matter how far you drift from the norm, you will always come back to equilibrium.
Coming from a mindset that doing something consistently is necessary for achieving goals, these three lessons were a key to unlocking my understanding that focusing on the joy I experience from my commitments was a better motivator than chasing consistency alone.