The Value of Consistency in Making Everything in Your Life Better

What is the value of consistency?

The longer I live, the greater I believe it is.

I’d go so far as to say if you want to change your life, make your actions more consistent.

Why Most People Underestimate the Value of Consistency

In today’s world, I think we’ve drifted away from consistency. We are so blessed that we can have just about anything we want within a short period of time.

We can buy things almost instantly online. We can walk into a restaurant or grocery store and satisfy our hunger. Entertainment resides at our fingertips.

Unfortunately, I think this has led to many of us believing that we should be able to get other things quickly too. A flatter stomach. Higher salary. Professional and personal success. Even a well-behaved dog.

But the things that matter most in life usually don’t come quickly. Instead, they arrive only after we have pursued them, and pursued them consistently, for a long time.

Let me give you a few examples.

The Value of Consistency in Teaching

I’ve taught private French horn lessons for most of my life. I love doing it, as it’s so rewarding to see students improve.

That improvement doesn’t happen, though, without consistency on the part of the student, but first, on my part. Telling a student to do something once or twice rarely helps much. I can emphasize a certain technique during the lesson, demonstrate it, write it down in the lesson notes, and practice it with the student.

But unless I follow through with a similar approach on the same technique week after week—until it is firmly ingrained in the student—I will not succeed in teaching that technique.

It’s not because my students aren’t listening or aren’t practicing. It’s because as human beings, we require consistency to be able to learn something. We must be reminded again and again, then practice again and again, before it sticks.

The Value of Consistency in Dog Training

It’s not only humans that need consistency to learn. Our four-legged friends need it to.

After I rescued my dog, Storm, I started working with her on several basic skills. I have trained dogs all my life, but each one is different and presents new challenges, so while Storm and I were getting acquainted, I started listening to a great podcast called “The Dog’s Way,” run by Sean McDaniel.

The podcast has a lot of good advice to offer, but on one episode, there was something Sean said that really stuck with me. Many people had emailed him about problems they were having with their dogs. He was addressing specifically the idea that some dogs “can’t be trained,” or aren’t “biddable” enough to want to do what their owners asked of them.

He suggested that these owners do one thing—spend a couple of weeks training their dogs every day, consistently. Whatever they were working on at the time—heel, sit, lie down, don’t jump—the advice was to spend time every day working on that task for at least a week or two.

Sean said he wasn’t surprised when he heard back from many of these same people saying they were amazed at what a difference this advice made. Those that took it to heart and followed through by just doing the same things day after day with their dogs were astonished when the dogs started responding.

One day, Fluffy laid down when they told her to. Sam greeted a stranger without jumping on her. Ralph sat on command.

It’s a good reminder for any of us. We expect that our dogs—or even our kids, for that matter—should learn after being told a time or two what is expected of them.

But dogs, cats, and kids will wait to see just how consistent we’re willing to be before they decide how to behave. Asking—and expecting—the same behavior over and over, day after day, can yield amazing results.

The Value of Consistency in Achieving Your Goals

What matters to most of us in this life is achieving our goals and making our dreams come true.

Yet how many of us give up too soon? How many of us fail to apply consistency to our efforts?

It took me 15 years of writing consistently before I finally signed the publishing contract I always wanted. Ask other people who have made their dreams come true and you’ll likely hear variations on that same story.

Years of effort, day in and day out, is what leads to those great moments of triumph in our lives. The problem is that while we’re in the trenches, doing the work, there are no guarantees.

We can’t see the future. We have to keep our heads down and keep trying without knowing whether what we’re doing will yield the results we hope for.

Here’s something else I’ve learned about consistency, though: it makes your life better no matter what. Even if you don’t get that flat tummy you want, if you exercise consistently, you will feel better and be healthier.

Write every day and even if you never publish a bestselling book, writing will get easier for you, and the act of writing will produce benefits in your mental and emotional well-being.

Meditate every morning and you may still find your thoughts scattered now and then, but you will gain a higher level of control over them and an ability to rein them in more quickly.

As long as the actions you choose are positive ones—you’re not smoking a cigarette consistently, for instance—the act of doing those actions consistently will produce positive results in your life.

All it takes is consistency! I think that’s magical.

“It’s a simple and generous rule of life that whatever you practice, you will improve at.

~ Elizabeth Gilbert

How to Bring More Consistency Into Your Life

It’s easy to talk about consistency, but it can be difficult to become more consistent in your life. Here are a few tips to help you do that.

1. Have your dream, but love the process.

Often the reason why we struggle to be consistent is that we’re focusing too much on what we hope will be the outcome of our efforts.

If you’re trying to flatten your belly, for instance, you may focus on your belly a lot. You weigh yourself every day, check how your belly feels when you put on your jeans, and look at it in the mirror. You may think negative thoughts about your belly, and wish it were smaller.

Even after you start a new diet and exercise program, your focus is likely to stay on your belly. Is it getting smaller? Are you losing weight? And if you don’t see results in a short period (a few months), you may give up, mistakenly believing that what you’re doing isn’t helping.

The same thing can happen with any dream you pursue if you are too focused on the outcome. Sure, it’s good to keep your goal in mind, but your focus needs to be on the process you’re using to get there.

Instead, focus on what healthy foods you’re going to eat today, when you’re going to exercise, and how you’re going to make these changes easier to adopt.

Once you know what your goal is, set it aside and focus most of your time and energy on the steps that you need to take to get there.

“Most importantly, mindfulness teaches us consistency,” says Charlie Ambler, founder of Strike Gently Meditation. “A thousand miles is roughly 2,000,000 steps. That’s a lot of steps. If we think about how many steps that is it makes us want to go drink a whiskey, smoke a cigarette, and bark at the moon. How the hell are we going to make the most of 2,000,000 steps? That’s the indulgent attitude. The mindful attitude is to simply start walking.”

2. Expect setbacks.

Another reason people have trouble staying consistent is that they expect the road to be smooth all the way.

But that’s not life. Life is difficult. It involves struggle. To expect otherwise is to indulge in magical thinking.

Yet that’s what many people do so that when they are faced with challenges and obstacles, they often give up. They may believe that a “real writer,” for example, wouldn’t have such difficulties, or that the struggles they’re experiencing means they’re not “meant to be” doctors or athletes or artists.

Valuing consistency means continuing with the plan—your daily actions—even when difficulties arise. Perhaps these are the times when consistency is most important.

We must all overcome obstacles along the way. As long as we expect them to appear, we’ll be prepared to continue with our consistent actions.

Keep exercising. Keep writing. Keep painting.

Whatever the steps are that you need to take to reach your goal, keep doing them day in and day out.

“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions,” says Tony Robbins. “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”

3. Feeling uninspired? Take that challenge!

What separates the amateurs from the pros is that the pros take consistent action even when they don’t feel like it.

I have to credit my parents for instilling this very important quality in me. I grew up on a ranch, and we had a lot of animals to take care of. My parents assigned each of us kids certain chores around the ranch.

We were expected to complete those chores no matter what. Even if we had extra homework, were involved in drama plays that took up our evenings, or had other events we wanted to attend, we were expected to get our chores done.

My brothers and I were known to complain about this growing up! But looking back now, I’m grateful. I learned to do things even when I didn’t feel like it, so it’s a lot easier for me to do that today.

I still fail sometimes when it comes to writing…and exercising! But I know that consistent actions get consistent results, and 10 years from now, I’m not going to care about how I felt on any particular day.

I’m going to care if I still have a healthy body and mind and I’ve completed the stories I set out to tell.

Says Spiritual Chaplain Cylon George:

Uninspired? Hit the gym anyway.

Uninspired? Kiss your spouse anyway.

Uninspired? Write that report anyway.

Do this long enough and inspiration will come rushing in behind you and knock you off your feet.