Consistency Pt. 3: Making New Habits Stick
“Without commitment you’ll never start. More importantly, without consistency you’ll never finish.”
This is true of anything - new habits or routines, achieving work-life balance, self-care, your sleep, health, or fitness goals/routines, being an anti-racist, parenting, dog parenting/training, journaling, creating, crafting, being true to you, replacing bad habits with good ones, having a successful career, creating a positive learning environment where students learn, etc. No matter what it is you are working on or working toward, you must consistently and intentionally take steps to achieve and maintain success through the struggles, mistakes, and failures.
Yes, consistency and adjustment are on two ends of the spectrum and, yet, you need both.
Before you start or take on a new habit or routine, start with adjustment - this will allow you to make the habit or routine meet your needs and will help you be more successful in the long term. If you start by simply implementing the exact habit or routine you see or hear others doing, you are less likely to be successful because you didn’t take the time to make the routine or habit work for you - you didn’t adjust it to meet your needs. However, if you start by adjusting the habit or routine to work for you, you are more likely to take ownership of the habit or routine and be successful in the long term implementation (to learn more about this process read New Year, New Habits).
Now, the tension between adjustment and consistency is something you need to figure out for yourself. There is no “one size fits all.” This process should start with knowing or getting to know yourself. If you are naturally a disciplined, structured, routine-driven, and consistent person, then you can probably use more adjustment and flexibility throughout your implementation process. If you tend to be a more flexible, go-with-the-flow, my schedule doesn’t define me person, then you probably want to err on the side of trying to be more consistent especially at the start of something new. Then you can move onto adjusting more later in your process. As I’ve learned from my Dad, life is all about finding balance and: Everything in moderation, including moderation - Oscar Wilde.
Consistency is in how often you act on the habit or routine you are taking on - sometimes, every other time, or almost every time (inconsistent) versus every time (consistent). For example, enacting any new habit or routine consistently means completing the habit or routine every time you planned for it. For example, you decide you want to work out Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays so every single Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you must work out; or you are trying to hold students accountable to your expectations which means you must redirect, reinforce, or correct any behaviors or misbehaviors every time they are observed; or you want to live a balanced lifestyle so you stop checking your work email after 5:00pm so once 5:00pm hits you must log off every day and not return to it; or you want your dog to go to his/her bed every time someone knocks at the door so you have to get your dog to their bed every single time someone knocks on the door. I’m sure you get the picture by now.
When you act inconsistently, without meaning to, you are sending the message to yourself and whomever else is involved that your new habit or routine doesn’t really matter. This can lead to negative feelings of failure or “I can’t do this.” On the other hand, consistently engaging in your new habit or routine fosters predictability and objectivity which allow you to become comfortable and motivated to continue on your journey toward success. The process becomes a means to an end - the end being the results and success you achieve.
To maintain consistency, your habits and routines must be clear and observable so that you can visualize your own success and make it happen for yourself. Effective people value the power of consistency because, ultimately, it leads to success - consistent action creates consistent results (Christine Kane). To learn more about creating habits that will stick, read: New Year, New habits.
