When I first started blogging, I was interested to do it as a way to help me grow and to spread some messages I felt were valuable enough to say.
I originally set myself a 100-day gratitude challenge to give me a reason to write something for 100 days in a row, but also as a way of actually developing gratitude as it was something I really lacked. I wanted to write about the things I was grateful for to keep building a positive mind.
But as I discovered on reflection, consistency in blogging was going to be the most difficult thing.
Consistency in blogging reflections
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
Bruce Lee
Because I am so busy running a meditation centre from 9am – 10pm 7 days a week, often I would be writing late into the night, but I pushed myself to write regardless.
It got to a point where it felt that what I was writing was quite stale and mechanical, and I wasn't truly feeling gratitude - it was more like something I was doing just for the sake of doing it and achieving the 100 days.
Since completing that, I set myself the goal of trying to write a certain amount of blogs each week, but instead of it just being able my own gratitude, I wanted to write about things other people could find value in.
I found it much more difficult to write content, so eventually I did what I have done many, many times in my life – I gave up and just ended up doing nothing.
It’s not something I’m proud of, but what I am proud of is that even though I gave up, I picked myself up and eventually continued – something I was never able to do in the past.
Consistency has always been difficult due to my bad habits - meditation helps!
"It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently."
- Tony Robbins
One of my habits is that when I am on a roll, I really overload myself. It’s a reaction against my bad habits – I try to occupy myself with as many good things as possible to keep me away from my negative, rotten habits.
Along with meditation which has the method to discard habits from your mind, it’s helped me break them and build good habits.
Consistency is the key success
"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
- Winston Churchill
Consistency is what successful people often talk about and now that I'm trying my best to be consistency, I can see how admirable it really is. I was so inconsistent, and I know I’ve come a long way, but there’s still more to go to truly master it for good.
When I look at myself, there seems to be 2 things that really block me from re-attempting things when I break my consistency.
1) A sense of hopelessness.
Generally, if I break my consistency, it’s because I’m going through a period of depression, so I don’t have any hope for what I’m doing. I don’t love myself, nor value what I do, so I think “what’s the point? It’s not even any good. And besides, I’ll just end up giving up again, so why bother starting?”
The only way I have ever been able to break out of this is by meditating and clearing my mind. While I know this is the only way, I also stubbornly refuse to meditate….
2) A fear of being judged for losing my consistency.
Because I am talking about the mind and how to have a true mind, it seems contradictory that I could break my consistency, let alone have any negativity. But I still do.
But if I can become a person who has true consistency through this process of discarding the mind, doesn’t that have value for everyone and give hope to anyone who also struggles with the same things I do?
Consistency and discipline go hand in hand
"Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come."
- Dwayne Johnson
Besides a lack of consistency, a lack of discipline is the other thing I struggled a lot with.
But a few months ago, I did a 3 day fast, and to keep myself occupied I decided I’d play a game. The problem is, I did not stop after the fast, I just kept going and going and going. Back to all day gaming…!
This is an old habit. I was a HARDCORE World of Warcraft player (Thunderfury tank baby!) and I would play every day, and sometimes from 7am – 4am. Ridiculous hours. So, it’s embedded in my entire being.
Normally, when this happens, I just give in, I don’t even try to meditate, I don’t want to, I want to keep playing or following my bad habits. And I will stop when I get bored of the game after months and months of relentless gaming.
But this time, I am trying to interrupt that cycle. I am trying, bit by bit, to meditate and to layer in good habits. The more I meditate, the easier it is to not game.
I am still gaming though, but nowhere near as much as I was. I am deliberately not just cutting it out of my life so I can actually overcome the desire by discarding the desires from my mind through meditation, because if I just avoid it, I haven’t truly overcome that mind.
Conclusion - have I mastered consistency?
Am I perfect? Haha no. Will I ever be? I do believe there is perfection, I have gotten so close so many times. But if even a shred of my old self remains, it consumes my being like an avalanche.
But it’s this very reason why I persist. I hate that old, false self, and I want the world to know they don’t need to live like that anymore.
Consistency might be a lifelong thing, but I didn't think it would be this difficult. Do you struggle with consistency?
beautifully written Steven!! I'm also struggling with consistency with blogging but meeting together every month helps keep me motivated. Thank you for all the amazing workshops you are doing!!
Your frankness is refreshing!
Thank you for sharing honestly Steven. It really helps. It's touching actually. Fighting !
I agree, especially consistency, yes, meditation definitely helps! 😍