400 Days of Surrender — Day 21: Being consistent
New to this series? You can find Day 1 and why I’m writing this here.
Being consistent has often been a struggle for me. Nowadays, I don’t look at it as necessarily a bad thing. I used to. We are taught that we need to make a plan and then stick to it. And there’s power in it. If you want to create something you need consistency.
But the drawback is that if you make a plan and stick to it, you are not doing other things. Getting “distracted” and following my curiosity has allowed me to explore the many topics that helped me get a better grasp of life, to discover my purpose (as I shared yesterday), and continue to learn new things that broaden and deepen my understanding. It has also taught me that I know very little and whenever you learn something new it might invalidate old beliefs.
However, being consistent is necessary if you want to have an impact. If you want to touch people. This is day 21 and so far I’ve been posting consistently. It helped me that I created a destination of 400 days so there’s a commitment to keep posting. That was not intentional but rather a reflection of how long I envisage this specific journey to be — but it’s a nice side effect. Let’s see how far it gets. Because it is a journey of surrender I might need to surrender to not having to create posts anymore because something else has taken its place. So setting a goal helps, committing oneself to it, even more so if it is done publicly.
The other thing that has helped me to be consistent and to commit is in partnerships. Whenever, I worked on something with a partner, my productivity, eagerness and commitment to create skyrocketed. Suddenly my mind that loves to go places becomes laser-focused and produces. And the partner does not even need to do that much, just share the ride with me, acknowledge and provide feedback. Of course, if he or she does more, I’m even more motivated.
That’s also why we like to go through life together, things are more fun together. And together does not even have to be a person. As I share these posts, people respond. Some love them and I get lots of [Instagram] hearts, some dislike or think they are misguided and some hate them. That’s a dialogue that keeps me going, that makes me want to produce more and to clarify if I feel I was not understood well or I did not explain well what I intended to say.
If you are thinking of creating something, do it from a place that is aligned with your purpose (see yesterday’s post) because it will make it a lot more fun, flowy and powerful as well as attract co-conspirators. Whether it is a strong commitment to yourself, a partner, an audience or just someone that keeps you accountable. And if you are struggling, then try to understand why that is.
Again, if you are in sync with your purpose which simply means that what you do is in alignment with a) what you are passionate about/what excites you/what matters to you, b) what you are good at, i.e. your skills and c) something the world “needs,” as in there is an audience even if it’s just an audience of one. When I coach, I just work with one person and that’s my audience.
Also, check whether you have any competing beliefs, i.e. your vocation might align with your passions, skills and needs but you might think you have to or should do something else because that other thing makes more money, is valued more by others, your parents want you to do it or whatever external reason (also see Day 9: Lost in the noise). Then you need to resolve that conflict and once you did being consistent will come easy to you.
Life provides us with infinite feedback until we act in alignment with our purpose. If you don’t feel fulfilled in life, then you are not living in alignment with who you really are. Life happens always for you, never to you! ✨
PS. I also just realised that if I leave it this late in the day to write (9pm) then likely because I’m more tired, it is less inspiring than if I do it earlier — at least this is how this post feels to me, “ok”, but not as beautiful or powerful as I’d like it to be. Well, tomorrow is another opportunity to do better :) G’night.
Continue to Day 22: Come back tomorrow or see below.
