How to Be Consistent

All the skills in the world mean nothing if you lack consistency.

Consistency is the real sign of intelligence.

The sad part is that no one will ever see what it takes to be consistent.

The emotional resilience, discipline, showing up when you don’t feel like it, etc.

But on the other hand…

Who cares?

If you are looking to be consistent for a pat on the back, then this post is not for you.

The race has already been lost….

You’ll never get the pat on the back that the ego thinks it deserves.

But on the other hand…

If you are looking to be consistent because you genuinely want to improve, then frameworks are available.

It’s a game of the mind influencing behavior.

And the behavior is malleable.

That’s the beauty of neuroscience & it’s effects on the growth mindset.

Consistency is a skill reserved for anyone.

Why Consistency is Difficult

Consistency is difficult because our mind is not conditioned for it.

Just observe thoughts if you don’t believe me.

On a natural day, the average human has 30,000+ thoughts.

Unless you train the mind to be still, it will not be still.

Which is why the same effects take life in our behaviors.

Unless we train the behaviors to remain congruent, it will devolve into entropy.

The real truth is that we often need to be inconsistent many times to change our behavior to the core.

‘What does that exactly mean?’

It means consistency is a game of failing your way into success.

When you understand this mindset, you understand a deep fundamental concept regarding consistency.

You realize why consistency is the weeding out process for life.

Why Experimentation Leads to Conviction

You are consistent regarding things that you care about.

But a lot of times, it takes work to find out what we care about.

This is why experimentation leads to long-lasting consistency.

Some people are able to spot what they want to do in their first try.

But for most of us, it requires experimentation to be bold & curious.

Experimentation helps us spot everything that we DON’T want to do.

And by eliminating a lot of the useless data, we are able to spot the meaningful data.

When we are able to spot the meaningful data, it is much easier to feel good about our choice.

It requires trying a whole bunch of different acts to feel conviction behind the choice we finally attach our minds to.

From there, it is much easier to show up.

The Why Leads to the What & What leads to the Why

Consistent behaviors are driven by a strong why.

In the last section, we talked about how experimentation gives us more data.

And from that data, we are able to eliminate poor choices & pick up the good ones.

From there, we want to decide what our driving force is.

The WHY is not always presented at first.

That’s something we work towards.

The more we are consistent with our behaviors, the more we clarify the WHY.

The clearer the WHY becomes, the more difficult it is to stop, even if we wanted.

That’s how a trained act becomes destiny.

When we can get our mind thinking like this, grand scheme-wise, the behaviors recalibrate on their own.

And consistency is a byproduct.

Creating a Schedule

Thus far, we have talked about experimentation.

We talked about zoning in on a task & developing a WHY.

By having a big WHY we are able to show up more.

Heck, it’ll be difficult to not show up even if we tried.

‘But what about a schedule Armani? Your strategy seems to be finding order thru the disorder. Is there any way to have some order in the beginning?’

Sure.

One of the ways to speed up the process is via a certain schedule.

A schedule is dependent on the context of the task.

In the case of my ArmaniTalks YouTube channel, I upload a video every Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Have not missed a beat in over a year.

Some of my followers who are looking to start YouTube channels ask how I am able to always upload.

It’s because I have a SUPER SIMPLE schedule.

From their end, it seems complex because I have over 200 videos up.

But I don’t focus on the 200 videos .

Just show up every Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

No excuses.

When you have a rough schedule, your mind is also able to activate creativity to keep you consistent!

One example is how I sometimes record a few extra videos on the days that I have more energy.

I stick these videos in a folder titled ‘backburner.’

This allows me to have content to upload to maintain consistency if emergencies hit.

In the beginning, I never thought of having a ‘backburner.’

But your creative brain works for you when you show the intention of telling it what’s important to you.

So the more you are able to zone in on a task, the more you should think about creating a schedule.

A schedule that keeps you on track.

Personalize this schedule to fit your goals, rather than straight-up copying someone else’s.

Someone else’s schedule can get the ball rolling, but ultimately, the personalization is what makes magic happen.

To make sure you do this schedule, execute the Seinfeld Chain Strategy.

Buy a big calendar & red sharpie.

Each day you execute your schedule, mark a big red X on the day.

Eventually, a link of X’s will form. Your ego will be invested.

And consistency will evolve.

Have Rituals not Routines

Notice thus far, I have been talking about the BIGGER picture.

I haven’t really covered how to stay consistent with smaller tasks?

‘Yea I noticed that. Why?’

Because I have the reverse philosophy.

When I was in college, I tried my best to meditate.

Did my best to remain consistent.

But found myself giving up in a few weeks.

Just wasn’t consistent.

The reason why was because I was trying to be consistent just for the sake of being consistent.

Didn’t have any purpose being the driving force.

But as I got older, I decided to work more on my communication skills.

Tasks such as public speaking, creative writing, storytelling, etc.

From there, I realized that having a sharp, focused mind increases my communication skills 10 fold.

This time, I drifted back into meditation.

But this time, I was consistent.

Once I was able to identify & lock into a big vision, micro acts like meditation fell out.

And this time, there was consistency.

Other micro tasks that fell out were, vocal training, being well-read, journaling, etc.

When you can identify and lock into a big vision by experimentation…

It’s much easier to be consistent with the smaller tasks as well.

That’s because now you know WHY you’re doing the smaller tasks and how they serve PRACTICAL uses.

Once you spot the meaningful acts, call them rituals.

“Rituals” is a nice word that adds color and personalizes you to the task.

The subconscious mind vibes with it.

“Routines” is cool and all, but it is a bland word.

It engages the conscious, but not the subconscious mind.

Build rituals.

These rituals are giving you more and more control over the destiny.

Words are perception programmers, so use them wisely.

Consistency is the Purest Intelligence

Consistency allows you to understand what mental toughness is all about.

It’s a game of showing up because you know it’s part of a bigger picture.

Focusing on the big elements like purpose, the big why, and vision is what allows for consistency.

Others find it fascinating that you are always showing up.

But for you, at this stage, everything is play.

The mind works wonders when we consistently train it.

Before, driving felt like a process full of tension.

But the more we drove, the more autopilot the act became.

Likewise, we can do that with any task that we desire to improve.

It’s a game of experimentation, locking in, cultivating the WHY & turning the work into play.

Build rituals.

And make these acts so normal, that you feel wierd on the days that you don’t excute them.

That’s consistency.

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– ArmaniTalks