There’s a big difference between being conscious and unconscious. If you are conscious, you are aware of your surroundings and what’s happening. In contrast, when we are unconscious, we are completely unaware of what’s going on around us.
When it comes to our lives, we are either conscious or unconscious to many things. For example, I was unaware of foods called GMO (genetically modified organisms) or the practices commonly done in the manipulation of food. Once I became aware, I changed my practices of how I choose food.
That brings me to the 2nd point – how do we get consistent in the practices that make our lives better. We have to get that consistency once we are conscious.
How do we do that?
Creating Rituals that Match Our Values I’m a believer that to be healthy, I need to exercise regularly. In other words, I value health and therefore, I exercise. So, what does that look like?
Usually, this means I exercise 5-6 days per week. 3 days of the week, this includes strength training. The other 2-3 days of the week, I focus on cardiovascular training. For example, I might walk or use an elliptical. It’s something I value, so I do it regularly – it’s a ritual.
Schedule It If you value it, it must go on your calendar. What time will you block out to make sure it happens? I put a high value on exercise, so for this reason, I schedule it first thing in the morning after brushing my teeth and getting dressed. For others, this could happen later in the day because they simply aren’t a morning person. That’s ok. Others might choose to do this at mid-day on their lunch break. Whatever works for you is fine. Just make sure you put it on the calendar.
Program Reminders Into Your Phone Just because it’s on your calendar doesn’t always mean it will get done. So, I recommend going one step further. Set a reminder or an alarm on your phone to give you a gentle (or not so gentle if you’re using an alarm) reminder. Again, this goes back to how much you value something.
Ask Someone To Help You Be Accountable You want to be consistent and part of how you can do this is to find someone who cares about you to help you become accountable to what you said you’re going to do.
Enlisting the help of others is what often stimulates you to be faithful to a new routine. Exercise is much easier for me to do as I have done it pretty consistently for over 30 years, but for other things, I need the accountability of other people. It’s for this reason, I joined a French Language meetup group and attending it with my girlfriend. The group itself helps, but doing it with her makes me want to do it even more.
That Nasty Word Called Discipline What I’ve been talking about is that dirty word called “discipline” or worse yet, “self-discipline.” I’ve chosen not to use those words, because they tend to conjure up negative connotations. It’s kind of like when your mom made you do your homework. Conscious Consistency is the way to what we have called discipline. I need to be aware of my values and create rituals to get going. I need to schedule those rituals and even program some reminders into my phone and ask someone to help me be accountable.
So, let me ask you:What areas do you want to become consciously consistent in your life?
I struggle with my rituals and being consistent with them. For example my morning walk will happen most days like maybe 5 days out of the 7 we get in a week. I want to become consciously consistent in this area now while the weather is nice where I live. I feel if I don’t then cold weather will give me another excuse not to get out of bed lol.
Thanks for the honest share. I think everyone does struggle some with some area of their life. For some, it might be their rituals around relationships, for others it’s a regular journaling practice (mine). There are some ways to get even more consistent. Stay tuned here and of course, I help people take it up a notch with coaching.