The reason you are not staying consistent is because of your comfort zone. And being consistent seems almost too easy, right?
All you have to do is the exact same thing every day for an extended period of time and you will reach your goal. Short answer, yes. But sprinkle in the joys of being human with short attention spans, limiting beliefs, changing interests and life responsibilities that cannot be ignored.
Why is being consistent so hard?
The simple answer is being human. We are complex creatures with emotions, dreams, responsibilities, fears, and it can be hard to rewire how you function in your day to day simple because you WANT to.
It also can be difficult to stay consistent with a routine or task or habit that doesn’t make you feel something on a deeper level. Without a purpose or a bigger goal in mind being consistent is very difficult because you are heading no where in particular.
6 Ways you can Stay Consistent with a New Routine:
- Shorten the timeframe between thinking about it and doing
- Habit Stacking
- Starting Smaller than you think
- Habit Tracker
- Adapting to your surroundings
- Embrace Failure
Let’s dive into each of these so you can create a routine that connects with your big life goals and watch yourself make the time to be consistent:
Shorten the timeframe between thinking about it and doing it.
Your brain will talk you out of doing something new. It’s actually doing it’s job so you can’t be too mad but if you want to show up consistently you need to practice taking action over simply thinking about it.
Right now you are comfortable or so your brain thinks. YOU might not actually like everything about your life right now. Job sucks. Don’t love your apartment. Haven’t found that friend group yet but your brain has classified where you are now as it’s safe zone. Pushing outside of this safe zone aka starting a new routine to change your life for the better is uncomfortable. Warning signs are blaring to retreat the moment you do something new.
Instead of allowing your brain the time to set those alarms off and you just start going for it you break the initial struggle to getting started.
But once you get started your brain is going to fight you every step of the way until it has deemed your new routine as it’s new safe zone.
Habit Stacking
A way to ease yourself into a new routine is through habit stacking. Habit stacking is when you connect a current habit with a new habit. An example is if I want to start the habit of reading 10 pages every morning I can stack that habit with my morning coffee. Before I drink my coffee I need to read 10 pages. This means that every morning I will go into my kitchen to make my coffee, if I add the one habit before my current habit it is more likely that I will stick to this new habit.
Starting smaller than you think
When building a new routine you might feel the urge to do everything all at once. Adding in a new skincare routine, workout routine, healthy eating, step goal, meeting up with friends more often. It can be a lot to do all at once. Of course you can have multiple habits in different areas of your life but you want to make it easy for you to complete each day or week. If you want to add in a new skincare routine and right now your skincare routine is exfoliating twice a week. Then doing a 5 step routine every single day will be very difficult. Start with exfoliating a few times a week and moisturizing every day. Once you get that down, add in more steps like a new serum, eye cream, sunscreen. The list can go on!
Habit Tracking
Keeping track of your habits can motivate you to keep going. This one works for my perfectionist and all or nothing girlies who love to cross things off. Habit Tracking can happen in a variety of ways:
- Buy a calendar you get to draw a big red X in each night before bed
- Make a checklist on your notes app to check off as you get each habit done.
- Put sticky notes on the wall and pull one off each day you complete your habits.
- Go old school and get a chart and gold star stickers.
The idea here is to have something you can look at every day that represents your habits. Imagine waking up each morning and seeing the gold star chart on your wall. This can motivate you to not break the streak. However, for my all or nothing girls this is motivating and can help you get started but for long term habits this one can be hard when you miss a habit and now there is gap in your beautiful chart which means you are a failure (you are not!) but your brain will convince you of this.
Use the habit tracker to motivate you but build some discipline around what might happen if you miss a day. Missing one day is not the end of the world. You get to dust yourself off and start again tomorrow.
Accept where you are now while building the future you crave
You have a set of responsibilities in your life right now. Adding in new habits can be hard depending on your surroundings. Use what you have, add to your life when you can. If you are wanting to hit 10k steps per day and wish you had a walking pad – pace around your living room while you save up. If you want to start lifting weights but don’t have access to dumbbells, keep those milk jugs and fill them up with water, use cans of soup as small weights, or even ask friends and family if they have some to borrow.
Changing your life means accepting your current life as it is right now. You can’t close your eyes and plug your ears envisioning the life you want and expect it to simply appear. You need to participate. Allow the current shitty apartment to be apart of the journey. Want to start a fitness YouTube channel, doing it in the small, dim room in your apartment because if you wait until you have the bright studio space it will probably never happen.
Embrace Failure
The biggest part of any new routine is the idea of “failing.” Failing is a weird concept when it comes to your own goals because you are the one who is putting these rules on yourself. I must walk 10,000 steps every day for 30 days but you walked 8450 one day so you “failed” in your mind. Why? Why does that make you a failure. Because 29 out 30 days is successful in my books. Imagine if it was 99 out of 100 days. And on top of that, all the habits you are currently living with (the good and the bad) are a product of a lifetime of experiences, thought process and circumstances out of your control. How can you expect to work on a new routine for only a few days or months – even years – and decide you failed.
The only time you will ever fail is if you stop trying. Get back up. Prepare to fail. I want you to write down what you would do if in your 30 day challenge you missed one day. How would you process that? Obviously, thinking about it and living through it are completely different but you can have a few systems in place to help you maintain your new routine longer term.
Now I want you to dive even further into your new routine. These steps can help you maintain this new routine but what is the real driving force behind it?
Why do you want to start a new routine?
When you are starting a new routine as a multi passionate creative woman it can feel exciting. It’s something new, fresh and you get ride that energy. But stake a moment to ask yourself why you want to start this new routine? Is it really your routine or did you see someone else do it and think it will be the thing that is so called “missing” from your life. Let yourself explore but be aware of your reasoning. Is this really something you want to spend time on or are you doing it for someone else?
What makes this routine the one that will help you?
Trying something new is great as a creative person because you get to gain more knowledge and experience. But make sure you are not putting to much weight onto the success of this routine because you will just be disappointed when you switch to something else. As a multi passionate creative you will inevitable lose some of your energy and jump to another project or habit or routine. Allow yourself to explore but don’t put to much pressure on being perfect. Perfectionism is your comfort zone holding you hostage.
Let’s jumpstart a new routine.
- Read: 10 Habits to Improve Your Life
- Watch: 50 Hobby Ideas for Women.