Since everyone is well aware about the power of discipline and consistency, let us rather emphasise on the exact opposite of these two qualities, namely: indiscipline and inconsistency.
Most authors refer to the power of habit, which is an equivalent to build a habit or to persevere an objective. All of us try hard to build good habits but most of us fail to stay consistent. This inconsistency ranges from the most abhorred activities, like working out or studying, to even the simplest ones, like sleeping.
Everyone is aware of the five hour rule but how many of us have been able to stay consistent and finish a dozen books in a year!
Today the knowledge of success secrets is meaningless, in fact most of them are no longer secrets!
Staying consistent does yield benefits over longer run, but the challenge lies in staying consistent. Just as the mere dedication of reading a book daily or writing a blog weekly is something that we can relate to, there are numerous others that we fail to adopt over a long time. Everyone knows someone who lost weight but eventually gained, or some who quit smoking at least once!
Consistency is difficult but not impossible!
And I am also a human full of errors. Personally I have failed at staying consistent for numerous things. Let me list out a few:
- Running
- Studying
- Social Media Following
- Blogging
After such an impeccable personal track record, if not for discipline, I do qualify to write and speak on indiscipline and inconsistency. Many times we give up since after a certain time we are unable to foresee significant gains. Personally, my vision had limited results for each:
- I could run neither any faster than 5:30 min per km nor any further than 21 km, the gains plateaued
- I was unsure how the tests would contribute to monetary gains or drastically change my career trajectory
- 1,000+ Twitter followers in 2012 felt good enough, I was unable to foresee any future benefits or monetisation
- And finally, I couldn’t find an answer to ‘who would read my blog!’
And this shortsightedness or rather the inability to foresee things kills our motivation. Positive reinforcement, favorable returns to certain behaviour, is at the heart of creating consistency or habits. Failure to trigger the mechanism leads to breaking the chain of habit, which we strived hard to create.
Keep shuffling and let inconsistency decide your fate!
To sum it up, the only difference between a successful person and an average person is the ‘consistency of inconsistency’
It keeps us from achieving our true potential. Everything you could have achieved or the person you dreamed to become. Although it boils down to ‘will power’ – this first deduction no brainier. And with some carful thought and self analysis, I figured out that there exists a second deduction, which affects our will power.
State of mind.
Let’s reserve this topic for another blog!
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Savvy Munshi 