What matters more intensity or consistency?

January 15, 2018

What matters more intensity or consistency?

Consistency is something that many people talk about but few people practice. Everybody knows that they need to be consistent to see results in their lives, yet so many of us never take the time to plan out our habits and work on our daily routines. If you aren’t aware of just how important consistency is in your life, and how you can enhance your growth through its practice, then prepare to have your mind opened for a few minutes.

Is it better to go to the gym for 8 hours one day a month or 20 minutes every day of the month? Is it better to have two deep cleanings for your teeth a year or brush them twice a day for two minutes all year long? What matters more intensity or consistency? I think the answer is consistency!

After spending over ten years in Relationship marketing and mastering how to be consistent and teach others to do the same I have narrowed down how you can start this process, how you can become more consistent with five easy steps.

First you have to Keep your eye on your why, you have to have a clear compelling vision as to what you are working towards. You have to have a hope, a goal, a dream for yourself and/or your family. Take a few moments and think deeply about your life. In the big picture, what do you hope to experience and accomplish? In what ways do you want to improve your mental and physical health? What bad habits do you want to change? What relationships patterns do you want to improve? What skills do you want to learn? What other things have you been thinking about changing?

Step two is to Pick your battle, not battles. Once you have a few things in mind, pick one that you are either the most motivated for, you are the closest to reaching, or that really needs to happen. Pick one thing and stay with that! The consistent implementation of a habit or routine builds new connections in your brain. The more you fire these connections, the deeper the grooves become.

Third you must Schedule time to accomplish your goal. Most people live a life of trying to fit in in or thinking tomorrow they will have time or next week it will be easier. You do not try it fit it in you simply schedule it in. As a student you had to show up to class when class was scheduled, as an employee you must show up to your scheduled time to work. To become consistent and accomplish your goal you must do the same. Daily steps towards your what you are working on scheduled in your day-to-day life. In other words, making small but consistent connections and improvements is much more powerful than making drastic, sporadic changes.

The main idea is that little steps, taken consistently over long periods of time lead to absolutely amazing results. Think about it! If I work out every day, even if it’s only for 20-30 minutes, how much better off am I in 5 years than the guy who decided to never go to the gym? And then there’s the person that goes to the gym full-out for an hour and a half everyday for 30 days, and then burns out and decides never to go again. Is he better off than the guy that went for 20-30 minutes a day, every day? Absolutely not! CONSISTENCY is the name of the game. It IS the game.

As you are working on step three above it is important to understand that step four helps you move faster. Step four is to Ignore your feelings in the moment, ignore voice in your head that is telling you to do it later, telling you to start tomorrow or maybe even causing doubt for you. Remember that feelings and thoughts are temporary and subjective. Any negative feeling or thought that could intrude on you being consistent is temporary. It is an illusion. In the moment it feels very powerful, but in an hour, 10 minutes, or tomorrow you could feel very different. Don’t let temporary illusions of stress, anxieties, worry, or insecurity derail you from your plan.

In moments like these it’s critical that you push through the discomfort and JUST DO IT! Execute. Do the workout, eat the healthier option, or make the time. Remind yourself how you will feel after your workout, or after you have conquered the moment. It will be worth it.

Step five is to Be Thankful for where you are and realize you have the power for more. Think of each habit you consistently practice as an upgrade to your current state of being. Practiced over time, you are evolving who you are, becoming a better version of yourself. With each habit you implement and each task you practice consistently, you are making progress on your being. You are upgrading who you are, with effects that ripple through your future. If you make zero changes in your life, you can visualize your future as a straight, linear line on a graph.

When you start consistently implementing new habits, and practicing those habits consistently, that straight linear line turns into a steep, upward growth path. Sure, it may not be a straight line anymore (it’s probably jumping all over the place!), but your future becomes infinitely better than it would have been if you chose not to take control of your life. Consistency is the glue that holds together good habits. Start any practice with slow, consistent progress and you will experience incredible growth as you move through your timeline of life.

Consistency matters more than intensity!