Let me be honest from the outset, I’m a rebel. That’s a bona fide personality type from Gretchin Rubin’s four tendencies assessment, and it’s the tendency I have.
When it came out as rebel, it really didn’t surprise me. I don’t like routine. At all. The thought of every day being the same, or even eating the same breakfast every day, makes me shudder. I don’t like making plans. That doesn’t mean I don’t like having fun and things to look forward to, but I don’t like being held to commitments, even those I’ve made. Yes, I’ll even rebel again myself!
For a time this made life difficult for me, because my rebel behaviour bothered me. Why couldn’t I just say I was going to go to the gym on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and just do that? Honestly, life would be much easier. But I’ve realised that my preference for variety and spontaneity is much greater. And I’ve learned to decide I’ll go to the gym three times this week, but it’s better to play fast and loose about when that actually is. Science might say that you’re more likely to achieve it if it’s scheduled, but my brain needs tricking into going so it can’t spend all day Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday looking for reasons not to go the next day!
I would say the word rebel fits me quite nicely, and I’m learning to wear it with pride.
But I have to confess, it’s held me back. Especially in my business. The overarching message from everything I’ve learnt in business is that consistency is key. The most important thing you can do is to pick a platform, and show up consistently. Whether it’s write a blog every week on a Wednesday or do a Facebook live every week on a Saturday. And that’s something I haven’t committed to (yet). Because I know that as soon as I say I’m going to do it, I’ll start to find ways to rebel against it and not do it.
I’ve been working on this consistency challenge recently though, and I’ve had a good amount of success. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve started meditating, but you might not know that the app I use shows my meditating streak (so the number of days in a row I’ve meditated). Every so many days that streak unlocked another level, until 100 days when all were unlocked. Yes, I managed to meditate consistently for 100 days in a row. I was very chuffed with that, and felt like it had developed into a habit which was what I was trying to do.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the app crashed. When I got it working again, it had reset me to day 1. I tried to find contact details and started to write an email to see if I could get it resolved, and then I had a word with myself. It’s a free app. These things happen. It’s a habit now. I could just start again from today, and I’d know the streak was longer.
I made my peace with it, and guess what? The bloody thing updated and my 120+ day streak returned! I could digress here about letting go of trivial matters and then they resolve themselves but I won’t. Other than this mention!
Anyway, I went merrily along feeling like the streak was a habit until, one night I was away from home and so a bit out of the usual routine (or as routine as it gets for me) and I forgot to meditate. It was a busy day, with lots going on and I’d become absorbed in all of that, and it just went out of my head. I realised the next day I’d lost my streak, and I was a bit gutted, truth be told. But then I reflected, and realised it had felt odd not doing it, like something was missing. I just hadn’t been able to put my finger on what at that time. So it was a habit. And I’d just start a new streak and continue, and I have. The new streak is now 11 days and counting.
Anyway, back to being consistent in my business. I realised I needed to be far more consistent but in a way that works for me and my rebel tendencies! I just hadn’t worked out how to do that. It was coming up to lent, and someone I follow on social media wrote a great post about what you could add for lent that would improve your business.
I thought about the meditating streak and thought about what I need to do more of in my business and I settled on creating a new habit of writing. So every day during lent, I am writing something. And yes, I’m deliberately keeping that fast and loose! I haven’t said I’m going to write a blog every day, because there are days like yesterday when things don’t go to plan and I manage a paragraph, and a short one at that. But there’s days like today when I knock out a decent draft of a blog post on a subject I want to talk about and it helps me prepare for a Facebook live too.
And all before 8am on a Saturday. Yes, today I feel like I’m winning at life. Yesterday, not so much!!
So here’s the thing. Writing something consistently every day means I’ve got blogs and posts ready to share. I’m not starting from a point where I need to work out what I want to say, turns out I have a few ideas and can ramble on about them a fair bit (if you’re still reading, thank you!). And when it’s there and ready, taking the short step to share it is much easier. Which means I’m putting a lot more out there. Not consistently every Wednesday, because I’d rebel about that. But consistently a couple of times a week. And that works for me. Consistency compounds, momentum builds, and the reward for your investment (whatever in) becomes exponential.
The latest streak I’m working on is exercise, and either hitting the gym or getting out for a walk every day. This one isn’t in double figures (yet) but I reckon I’ve got the tools I need to build another good habit and I plan to use consistency and the power of momentum to keep chipping away at this too.
I’m sure that when lent ends, I’ll keep writing every day, because I’m seeing and feeling the benefits. I know I’ll continue to meditate for the same reason. And exercise. And I think that’s enough to be getting on with for now! I should mention that I gave up crisps for lent too, although I accidentally had three hula hoops earlier in the week (completely forgotten I’d given them up!). I’m pretty sure I’ll eat them again once lent is over, I think I’ve got enough positive habits on the go at the moment!
Building habits that support your goals is one of the tools I use when I coach. So my question to you is, what positive habit to do you want to build? And how can you start a streak to take you consistently towards that? Remember, set the bar at a level you can achieve on a bad day, so you can build consistency and momentum and let the compounding help you grow your progress exponentially. And if you’d like an extra helping hand, you can find out more about working with me if you click here.
My shiny new trainers which are getting less shiny by the day….