Goals – Check.
Vision – Check.
Planning – Check.
Intention – Check.
Consistency – Umm? Not sure, sometimes.

Do we work on something we dream of every single day? Many of us actually don’t. But what’s the missing piece, here? Why is it so hard to be consistent? Despite having a dream, we don’t often move towards it with focus. The truth is that we all struggle with consistency and it is perhaps time to rethink it.

CONSISTENCY’S HUGE HURDLE

Consistency is an accumulation of what we do over time. If you’re puzzled about why you are unable to be consistent even though you have in mind exactly what you want to do and how you want to go about it, then your answer is here: procrastination. Ah, the thief of time as the old saying goes. This is the biggest block that comes in between you and your dreams. You might have the intention, but the more you put it off for another time, the more distant and faded it gets. The intensity with which you dreamt your big picture will reduce with time, until one day you might not feel it the way you did anymore. Haven’t we all been there at some point? Try and recall the last time you postponed something you are passionate about but didn’t have the time for.

JUST BEGIN!

Yes, even if you are uninspired. Just start and whatever you need will come to you. A blank canvas is how we all begin. Creative chaos can be beautiful but some discipline helps if we want productivity. Keep the rules simple and don’t beat yourself up if the first results are not what you had in mind. Forgive yourself, but don’t stop. Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, start and it will find its way, just like little bo peep’s sheep!

PRACTICE AND IMPROVE

It is a simple and generous rule of life that whatever you practice you will improve at.

Elizabeth Gilbert

It is as simple as that. What we fixate ourselves on, we will eventually become the best at. So what do we focus on, then? The process of becoming and not the outcome. We are most of the time obsessed with the outcome of our plan and not the activity that goes into it. This is why we end up frustrated when we don’t get the desired results. Go back to step 1. Remember why you dreamt your dream. It gives you joy and happiness. Doing things without focussing on the purpose of it is where the fun lies. When we are having fun doing something, we never get drained, do we! We talk about visions and long term goals, so this statement might seem paradoxical, but we can taste the sweetness of victory only if we get comfy in the beginner’s chair and embrace the learning process. Synchronize your goals with what you love doing.

HAVE A VISION BUT LIVE IN THE PRESENT

Beginning something means you have a whole lot of room to create and expand your knowledge. When you are in the here and now, be entirely present. The only way the outcome can be extraordinary is when you are completely engaged in the present task at hand.

Acknowledge your worries and inhibitions when they come, oh yes, they will! But also learn to let them go and bring your dreamy self back to the drawing board where you work on building your dream.

THERE WILL BE A ‘DIP’…

It takes courage to live your dream, because the path to success is not without a mess somewhere along the way. Seth Godin, in his book, The Dip talks about that messy middle. This point often comes after a bit of success and it decides who quits and who continues to pursue without getting too disheartened. Anticipating this dip ahead of time will really help you in knowing how to tackle it when it comes, and eventually you can go ahead and scream, ‘Goal!’ A tip to get through such times is to remember the ‘why’ for your dream. When you remember the why of your dream, you can hardly get demotivated.

Ultimately, be who you want to be and not just what you want to accomplish. Every successful person has this one thing in common: their thirst to become and not only achieve. If you are a writer,blogger, entrepreneur, artist or anything you wish to be, focus on becoming the best version you can be of that. Consistency breeds trust, and the community you build will count on that.

When you figure out who exactly you want to become, you will invest in that consistently.