Whether you want to lose weight, run a marathon, write a book or learn a language, the one thing that will bring you success is not willpower, talent or intelligence. It’s consistency. It’s the things that you do 99% of the time that make you who you are. So how do you introduce the magical property of consistency into your life? Here are three tips…
1. Form healthy habits
Most of what we do in life is habit. If we really had to make a decision about every tiny little thing we did every day we’d soon end up in a bit of a mess. That’s why most things happen automatically. We take a shower, we brush our teeth, we put clothes on, yes it’s just a habit – and imagine if wasn’t?! (I’m really sorry, I just forget to put my clothes on today!) So, lots of our habits are there for good reason, but some just aren’t that helpful. Like the hitting the snooze button, not looking after your keys, not getting your clothes ready the night before an important event, not watching what you eat or how much you drink. Losing bad habits and forming healthy habits, is a really good habit to get into.
2. The habit of consistency
Habits are such powerful things that they can be relatively easy to form – for some reason the bad ones seem to be easier! But if you want to live a healthy life you have to consistently live like a healthy person. Even if it’s just a pretense to begin with. Next time you find yourself following your usual pattern of eating a second helping, or scoffing a packet a biscuits ask yourself this question, “would a healthy person do that?” Do what the healthy person would do and soon enough, you’ll find that you have become that ‘healthy person’ yourself. If you find yourself skipping your planned exercise, again ask, “would a healthy person do that?” If you do what a healthy person does all the time, you will become a healthy person yourself. Why? Because of consistency.
3. Ask yourself who you want to be – and start being that person consistently
If you go rock climbing once in a blue moon, you wouldn’t describe yourself as a rock climber. If you went every weekend though, you’d soon start to describe yourself as one. Take the time to work out exactly what kind of person you want to be. It’s a simple idea, but how many of us actually do it? So, do you want to be a slim person, a healthy person, a runner, a rock climber? Whoever you want to be, start behaving like that person consistently and before you know it, that’s who you’ll become.