1 Year Anniversary: Consistency
Today is the day I have dreamt about for a year now. 1 year in the books with my blog Dare to Habit! All it took was dedication and the number 1 reason: Consistency.
330 blog entries out of 365!
Not to shabby. There are moments I look at that number and get discouraged because I wanted it to be a perfect year but as my motto goes, “It doesn’t have to be pretty, you just have to do it!” So lets talk about what it means to stay consistent through this year.
How did I stay consistent with my blog. Well I just did it. I know that sounds like a simple explanation but there is no secret to consistency. There isn’t a magic pill to swallow or a button to push, it literally is a choice you make. Do you want to do it or not. Consistency requires one thing, that you choice to stick with it. That is it. You want to write a blog for a year, everyday? Then do it. Even if it sucks, even if it’s not pretty, even if you can’t spell and your grammar is awful, do it anyways. You don’t need to ask permission from anyone else, you just have to chose to do it. That is all.
Now I am not saying there weren’t days I wasn’t on, or even wanting to do this but I pushed through it and wrote something, even if it was like 100 words anyways. Some of my posts may be good, others may suck, that isn’t the point of what Dare to Habit is about. It’s about doing it even if you are judged, doing it even if you think that you will be rejected or mocked. Dare to habit is a life line that you get to chose. It’s meant to embody yourself rising up to the challenge you are putting on yourself. It’s about no bs, no excuses, no fear, and leaping into it all. The good, the bad, the ugly and becoming who you want to be by creating healthy habits. So let’s get to the goods and help you to get to a 1 year anniversary.
I want you to chose 1 thing. Something you can actually do everyday. It can be reading for 10 minutes, to writing a journal before bed. Make this realistic because there will be days that you just need a break. It’s important to not force yourself to be perfect at it. It’s important to take a day off here or there if you need to. What is one thing you have wanted to do that you can actually be consistent in for a year?
If you don’t want it to be a daily activity okay, let’s make it at least 3-4 days a week though. That’s the challenge of it. If it were called an easy everyone would be doing it.
Now that you have your think find a time of the day to do this thing. When I first began my Dare to habit journey it was trial and error. I started writing my blogs when I first woke up, and then it finally ended up being at the end of my day. But in all that I want you to find a time of the day to set aside and make it the time to do the activity you chose. (If you find that time to be hard then switch it, but make it around the same time daily.) Habits love routine, consistency loves schedules, so make this activity around the same time daily to start creating that new neural pathway for yourself.
Next tackled it every single day for the first month. Don’t miss a day during the first month because it’s important that you keep with it in order to make it a habit. So if you are doing this 3-4 days a week instead of daily then make sure not to skip at all and don’t switch days either. If you scheduled yourself Monday, Wednesday and Friday then you need to do it on those days. No questions asked.
After the first month try to keep with it but if you find yourself needing a break take 1 day off, that’s it. After the second month now we can talk about taking mini breaks. Why do we wait so long for a mini break? Because any sooner then you would stop doing it and then not want to get back after it. Consistency requires you to chose this thing over and over and over, day in and day out. If you started it and 3 weeks in you need a break, will you go back to it the next day? Or will it be like other things you quit or didn’t follow through with and be like well since I missed one day now I can take the weekend off. Consistency isn’t about being lax, it’s about taking charge and doing it despite anything. That is why I suggest waiting until 2 months at least to do a mini break because you don’t want to give up on it because trust me there will be days you question why you are even doing it.
Habits no matter how much fun or how passionate you are about them can become numbing sometimes. They can be downright aggravating to do. There were days I didn’t want to write or had no idea what I was even writing or got discouraged because no one even was reading it. Why was I doing it then? This is when you have to chose it anyways because the moment you let go of that rope that’s the moment you fall off the cliff. And aren’t you tired of always having to start something? Aren’t you tired of never following through? Aren’t you tired of being in the same bs mentality that you are? Don’t you want all the things you keep getting jealous of with others? Then it’s up to you to chose to put in the effort and be consistent. It won’t be handed to you, you have to be the one to work for it every single day. Even the days where your depressed, your insecure, your scared, your not feeling it, your this or that, you have to work.
So after you have been doing it for a while, if you decide to go on a vacation like I did then you have to allow yourself the break. For me taking a break always made me feel guilty. Wouldn’t I quit doing it? Wouldn’t I just give up on it? My biggest worry was that once I stopped I was afraid I would never start again, but it didn’t happen. Why? Because the time off gave me time to reflect and find joy. It gave me time to fall in love with what I am doing again and get right back on it. But the biggest reason I stayed with it was because I gave myself a timeline. I said I will be off from this date to this date and as soon as the vacation was over I went right back to it.
You have to be proactive and keep it running in the background. Like for me the week off I took was relaxing but I kept thinking okay 5 more days and I need to write again. The pressure I put on myself was unreal but in the end effective because I went back to it over and over and over again. I had to be a bully to myself at times. Get downright mean because otherwise I wanted to give up. I wanted to throw in the towel and say fuck it. I battle depression so when that sad sack comes around that’s when I have to be mean. I have to tell myself about what will happen if I fail. I have to make the pain of quitting far worst so that way I have no other option then to right. So be prepared for those moments, they are hard, but if you want it bad enough you will chose to pick it back up and stick with it over and over.
Remember when I spoke about the fight during a workout? When you battle your demons in order to finish the workout? Well imagine this whole time, the year long journey is a battle against your demons. You are choosing you over that old mental chatter in your head. That is what consistency is, choosing to do it even if your mentality is down and dark and hating on the new version of you. Also along this journey I want you to be kind to yourself and find compassion for yourself because sometimes chasing to do it is really hard in itself. Don’t beat yourself up if you need a day. Shame only makes keeping with it that much harder. That is why it’s okay to take a day off, you just have to chose to come back the day after.
Not every day is going to be rainbows and sunshine my friends. It’s going to be what it is and we have no control over any of it. Except your mentality. So chose consistency over complacency. Chose to laugh instead of sulk. Chose to put effort in rather than lazy. Chose yourself and investing in your beautiful soul because you my dearest one are worth it. I promise if you do then all that you want to do will become reality. Look at my journey, closing my business for 3 1/2 months to now expanding my business and super confident. (Yes I still freak out daily.) But through this journey doing Dare to Habit it taught me that investing in myself and taking the leap is better then being sad, scared and stagnant. So the chose like always is yours. Are you ready to Dare to Habit?
Today was a 10!