Consistency can be a key to improvement, growth, and results. Yet it can often leave people feeling hemmed in or constrained. Oscar Wilde famously wrote, “Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.” Must we choose between consistency and creativity? Let’s examine the power of consistency. Then, I’ll give you five ways to practice this important principle.
The Power of Consistency
Consistency in any behavior can:
- Build momentum. Getting started is usually the hardest part of any task. Once you have a rhythm and a proven process started, it is easier to keep going. If you have a behavior that moves you toward your goals, momentum is a powerful force.
- Build your skills. Repetition is key when mastering any skill. Consistency in performing any action helps build our skills in that action. Over time, that consistency will improve the results of the action.
- Boost self-confidence. Success breeds confidence. Knowing you can be successful makes you more willing and confident in your efforts. Increased confidence tends to directly affect the results, cultivating the confidence/competence loop. <- https://kevineikenberry.com/communication-interpersonal-skills/the-confidencecompetence-loop/
- Build trust with others. Consistent performance teaches people what they can expect from you. Meeting or exceeding the expectations of others builds trust between you.
Of course, this power can be used for good or ill. Consistently doing something harmful to yourself, your self-image, or others will get the same results in a negative direction.
Practices to Help
Here are five ways to put more consistency in your life, well, more consistently.
- Have a clear why. When we know why we are doing something, it takes less discipline to do it. Let your clear why for a goal (or life in general) be the source for the consistency you seek.
- Live from your values. With a clear set of values to guide you, consistency in most things comes more naturally. And the rest of this list also gets easier.
- Decide. Based on your why and your values, decide where you want or need to be more consistent. Until you have a definitive picture of the consistency you desire, you can never create it.
- Establish routines. Routines or habits drive your consistency. Your consistency becomes more natural and automatic when you create intentional routines.
- Grant yourself some grace. Whether you call it grace or self-compassion, remember that you are human. Being consistent doesn’t mean being perfect. If you miss an opportunity to practice the behavior you want, don’t beat yourself up or worse, give up. Rather, learn from the miss or bobble, and keep going.
Consistent in Everything?
But what about Oscar Wilde’s point – the downside of consistency? Perhaps we should elaborate with a quote from Emerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” The keyword here is foolish.
This leads us to a sixth way to increase consistency - Be consistent in effort, flexible in approach. Consistency, like any other virtue, can be taken too far. Leaning into consistency as justification to never consider alternatives or try new things can become a barrier to accomplishment. Innovation is sometimes stifled in the name of consistency and “we’ve always done it that way.” Consistency can also be about the constant and unrelenting effort applied toward the goal rather than the methods used. Framed in that way, the power of consistency remains strong and beneficial.
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