Why You Struggle With Consistency and How to Improve

Hint: You have to assassinate the perfectionist within you

We are often told ‘ Consistency is key ’ and while that is definitely true. Few ever go into detail on how to beat chronic inconsistency.

If you are anything like me, staying consistent can be insanely difficult. In regards to work ethic, I'm more of a Kanye than an Elon. I work better in creative outbursts and then after a while, I drop off the face of the earth.

Where did she go, they would all query? Why did she stop attending?

I would start projects and give up halfway through just because I had internalized my inconsistency. It got to a point where I just knew I would never complete the project so of course; I was consistent in inconsistency.

The irony.

Talking advice from someone who struggled with being consistent and still struggles till this day (to a lesser extent) is probably not ideal, I imagine. However, the insight I have on this subject is far too great, that I would do a massive disservice if I were to withhold.

Without further-a-do here are the 4 principal reasons we struggle with consistency and how we can counteract them.

Reason 1: You don't believe in your self

Somewhere deep down you think your gonna fail. That fear of failing is real; it's blanketed with so many excuses of why you won't make it- or worse; why you don't deserve to succeed in your goal. Whenever you try to get a task done, a whisper in your ear tells you that the goal is too difficult for you to compete. That you don't have enough resources or that you aren't as skilled as someone else. This lack of self-belief manifests in comparing yourself to others. It sounds a bit like this:

I’ll never be able to tell a story as well as Tim Denning

My content is nowhere near as funny or engaging as Sean Kernan

Some people know this feeling as ‘Imposters syndrome’.

The truth is many people who struggle with inconsistency actually don't believe in themselves. I was one of those individuals. It took a lot of self-study and awareness to identify this as a problem.

In this case, lack of consistency in your efforts is merely a side effect of another problem that needs to be addressed first.

Here’s my unsolicited and unbiased advice on how to deal with this:

• Understand that everything everyone knows they have learned (from experience)
• Those that succeed also doubted themselves as well
• Nobody expects you to have the right answers. And that ok.
• Confidence is a by-product of continuous effort and small victories
• Stumbling is always better than sitting idly
• Set small goals, achieve them, and watch your confidence skyrocket

“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” — T. Harv Eker

On the flip side of the spectrum, and you’ll be interested to find this out, there are individuals who have an abundance of self-confidence.

Reason 2: Confidence that hides behind Complacency

If this is you, then you are most likely gifted or have faced very few rejections/obstacles in your life. You have gotten to a particular stage where ‘the worry of failure’ poses no threat. You are blessed with an abundance of confidence, and though that might be good, it can stop you from progressing forward.

Overconfidence can sometimes prevent you from taking the steps to get things done. And more often than not, it can kill your success streak. This is because consistency, as well as talent/skill, is needed to hit your goals. Without consistent effort, you won't improve. Before you know it, you’ll be yesterday's news and someone who is more persistent, perhaps even lesser skilled than you will take your place.

If you have a tendency to rely solely on confidence of ability. This one’s for you:

• Understand that consistency is the key to the door of success, how fast you get to that door depends on your connections, skill, or talent. But all of that doesn't guarantee you entry.
• Things that come easy, go easy. The biggest goals always rely on consistency and luck. Talent, skill, or connections cannot substitute that.
• Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're an ‘expert’. Even ‘experts’ can still learn more.
• Aim to get better every day. Lack of consistency can promote stagnation.
• Remain teachable by honing your craft every day and learning from others. Even those who aren't as good as you.
• If the task is too easy and you feel that this causes inconsistency. Try something more challenging, request more work.
• Never- under any circumstance- lose your tenacity

‘ Success breeds complacency, complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive’- Andy Grove

Reason 3: Prioritising Quality over quantity

You spend too much time dwelling on the task. You're a little of a perfectionist and always what to put out your best work. You often ask for an extension to a deadline you failed to meet. You probably work too hard but cannot accomplish much. You also have a hard time sticking to a strict schedule.

If this is you, then you are not alone. Plenty of individuals including me suffer from perfectionism. The kicker is I don't strive for perfection in a lot of areas in my life, but when it comes to writing I can never seem to hit the publish button. There’s always a paragraph that needs rearranging, sentence structures that need to be changed, and unnecessary words that need to be removed. All of this set me back several days.

A lot of people who suffer from perfectionist syndrome seem to be unaware of the fact that quantity drives quality. Only by practicing and increasing our output can we ever meet our highly ideal standards of work.

Here’s an excerpt from Maxwell’s failing forward that explains this irony well:

‘The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A,” forty pounds a “B,” and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” hoever, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A.” Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.’

Whilst It’s great that you have a strong sense of pride in delivering high-quality work. Here are some things you can do to make sure it does not affect your consistency:

• Time block: Set out realistic times during the day where you must complete the task. When I write my first draft, I give myself 2 hours to complete it.
• Don't overthink it. If it’s not great yet, that's good news. Because that means there’s room to improve next time.
• Understand that quality is a byproduct of producing tons of mediocre work.
• Understand that no one starts off great. If that was the case, everyone would be a one-hit-wonder.

‘Forget perfection. Aim to get better every day’

Reason 4: A Lack of discipline

You suffer from a lack of discipline when you’d prefer not to get the work done (or at all). You don't have a clear vision or goal that stimulates you to take action. You're a heavy procrastinator and fall prey to instant gratification. Stuff like scrolling through Twitter for hours, tickle your dopamine receptors. People know you as a flaky person who never delivers on a promise. And every day is a missed opportunity full of past tomorrows.

Lack of discipline can be attributed to many things. If you are undisciplined in one area of your life, it often creeps into another. Lack of discipline incites procrastination and is usually accompanied by a bunch of excuses on why it just difficult to take action.

So if you think about it, you suffer from a problem within a problem.

One thing I’m sure of is that discipline is needed to be consistent. So if this is you, then your primary focus should be on building self-discipline first.

Here’s how to build discipline and in the process become a more consistent individual:

• Say goodbye to distractions. That means turning off all gadgets that compete for your attention.
• Try not to overwhelm yourself by staying focused on one thing at a time
• Introduce a day planner and set small daily goals, then tick them off immediately when done
• Plan every day ahead of time, but loosely, so you have room to make changes if you require it
• Get someone to hold you accountable. Tell a relative or a friend of your goal- Nothing beats social pressure
• Reward your self: The reward should only be as big as the feat accomplished

‘Discipline is the foundation needed to build consistency on. Without discipline very little can be accomplished.’

To summarise

There's plenty more reason we suffer from inconsistency. But these are the most common ones. Each reason needs to be treated separately in order to overcome it.

Here’s a quick reminder:

# Self believe is vital in getting the work completed. Confidence is a by-product of small victories. Consistency leads to even bigger victories.

# Overconfidence breeds complacency. You can always improve.

# Your hopes of producing ‘quality work depend on increasing your output.

# Discipline is required in order to remain consistent.

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