Hey friends, it’s been a while.
This comeback is to highlight a major weakness of mine which was the major reason for me not writing for more than two weeks now - consistency!
I cannot remember the last time I was consistent at something. The only thing I’ve been consistent at is journaling, of which I’ve journaled for 269 days since June 15th last year. But that is no achievement yet coz I aim for one year of everyday journaling. And I’ve been consistent in journaling coz I see the value in it; helps me clear my thoughts at night, helps me be in touch with what I’m feeling at the end of that day, helps me keep special memorable days in photos and in writing - to be referenced in the future, and so many other reasons why I’ve loved journaling✍🏽.
But other than that, I can’t honestly remember something I’ve been consistent at. Be it attending classes, meeting up with friend groups, communication with loved ones, posting these newsletters, money saving and spending habits… I am not proud of any one of these such that I can say I’ve been doing X for this number of years/months.
One reason I always have for wanting to be consistent is that, when I look back I can proudly say: “I’ve been sending out newsletters every Sunday, for the last 5 years”…”I’ve been working out three times a week for the past 8 years”…”I’ve been reading 10pages of a book everyday since year X”…”I’ve been developing Y skill for 5 years now”. Think about it, right now whenever people or companies ask how long have I been writing my articles/newsletters for, and I say “7 months, and not every Sunday too!” that won’t be remarkable at all. It’ll be like, eh, he’s just an occasional writer, not someone serious about it.
I remember Cristiano Ronaldo’s interviews while at United in 2008. Whenever asked about his signature step-overs he would say he does them every single time in training, for so many years ever since his academy days in Sporting.
I’m no fan of basketball, but if you ask Lebron or Steph Curry or whomever, how they make 3-pointers look so easy, they’d probably tell you they’ve done shooting practice for years now, such that it looks easy to the outside eye.
My favorite preacher, Pr. Randy Skeete, has this admirable preaching method of reciting passages of Scripture off the top of his head, from any part of the Bible and at any time he needs to recall a passage. And I’ve watched and listened to him so many times but each and every time it’s more impressive. And he says often, constant practice and study of the Bible has been his not-so-secret method of memorizing Scripture. And this made me task myself to master a few Bible passages starting last February to the end of the year. And so far so good. I’ve missed around two days only which still makes me know I’m not as consistent as I want to be.
Something I’ve been reading and listening to for a while now, is ‘Just Showing Up’. I imagined not many people would care about something as trivial as a missed email, but I got quite a handful of questions as to why I haven’t written recently. And that is so encouraging. And even when I gave the lame excuse that I didn’t have anything to write, friends even offered topics for me to write on. Even they know that if I decided to do this, I should just show up and not give up writing for even a week just coz I don’t have something to write on. And now I feel that when it comes to building productive habits, consistency and ‘just showing up’ is really important.
Lets say we’re making a commitment to ourselves that we’ll drink 5 glasses of pure water every day, or that we’ll study for our CPAs every day, or anything like that. We’re definitely going to have days where we can’t be bothered. We’ll make up dubious reasons, telling ourselves that one missed day doesn’t matter and that we’ll work twice as hard the following day to make it up.
This is a subtle trap. Habits are built on consistency.
So when I have those days when I can’t be bothered or just don’t feel like doing what I need to do, I would like to still show up. Lemme try this out for the next one year, and see where showing up will get me. I want to actually try showing up!😐
✍🏽Quote of the Week
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…
PS: If you have a few seconds to spare, please hit the <reply> button and let me know what you thought of this email. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and what could be improved. It also reminds me that there’s another person reading it on the other end of my screen😅. Thanks.
Have a wonderful week ahead!
✍🏽Reagan.