Consistency--The Balancing Forces

I saw a recent reel of an interview with retired Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. In it, she talked about how consistency in the small things can lead to success. She made a pact to herself after falling to the 6th spot on the Jamaican sprint team that she was going to show up for practice at 5:00AM everyday for the next year of training. I thought about this and how there are times I have been consistent, but for the most part my life is known for its inconsistency, which I realize holds me back. When I was in elementary school, I was determined to keep up my morning "rituals", which included doing several dozen crunches each morning. While it led to me being the "sit-up champion" for my school's yearly fitness tests, I realized I was incredibly serious and struggled with enjoying life. For many years, I ran in the opposite direction from the rituals, in that I resisted trying to be "perfect" in a pursuit of just about anything. As you may suspect, this did not lead to unimaginable joy! What I am coming to find is that there is a balance within consistency that helps sustain momentum. The sense of joy as we begin a routine to reach a goal has its honeymoon phase, where it feels shiny, new and has an intrinsic joy-factor built in as you are proving to yourself that you are capable of a change in your life. Our minds are set to reach a point where the novelty wears thin. It is this stage where I usually falter and fall from the "razor's edge" of long-term consistency. I am realizing variety in any number of ways is one thing that helps counter this. For example, if I always exercise the same muscles doing the same exercise, my body is going to be more likely to become injured, as there are other muscles and joints that are not getting what they need. Both the mind and the body crave variety yet also build off certain pattern recognition and memorized sets of movements to reach the "flow state". All these loosely related points come to this focal point--long term consistency takes a blend of discipline (the will to do things each day or "x" number of times per week) with variety that allows the mind to stay curious while building on past successes. Another way to think of it is that discipline leads to physical and mental strength, while the joy or playful factor keeps the momentum strong. I like to think how the heart does not stop beating but it has moments in its rhythm that cardiologists tell us it is in a more relaxed state. Work, study, exercise, and other endeavors that require mastery are similar, in that if we grind on the same gears, it can lead to injury or mental burnout. It is important to find the proverbial meadows in the forest of our efforts to experience hope for the journey. For me, this can be a brief conversation about anything but work with a colleague after spending an hour on a tedious task. Or it can be doing something completely out of routine, such as going on a walk or bike ride during a time of day or day of the week that is completely out of the ordinary. For me, it can even be as simple as getting an errand done before the workday begins so that it is not playing the "back seat driver" in my head throughout my workday, nagging at me that I can not seem to find the work-life balance. My hope is that you continue to sharpen your ability to balance the factors that build long-term consistency in your pursuits.