How to Learn to be Consistent: A Wise Way to Live • The Disciplined Rebel

Do you want to know HOW to learn to be CONSISTENT?

If so, you are in luck!

Because this article is going to give you a 9-Step method for how to STAY consistent with your goals!

Here is what you are going to learn:

WHY it is important to be consistent.
Why consistency is SO difficult.
HOW to learn to be consistent (including a 9-step method for how to improve consistency in life).

Table of Contents

1) Section 1: Why It is Important to Learn to be Consistent

2) Section 2: Why Consistency is So Difficult

3) Section 3: How to Learn to be Consistent

4) Free “How to Learn to be Consistent” Cheat Sheet

Section 1: Why It is Important to Learn to be Consistent

I used to be COMPLETELY inconsistent.

Some days I would be HIGHLY productive. And would do things like:

Studying
Playing guitar
And exercising

But other days I would do NOTHING. And would spend all day:

Playing games
Eating junk food
And watching Netflix

And I’m not going to lie, I had more nothing days than productive days!

But then, I started to turn my life around.

And you know what one of the BIGGEST factors was?

Learning how to be CONSISTENT.

There are several reasons why it is important to be consistent:

Consistency provides structure: And that structure makes it easier for you to commit to your goals. When you know exactly WHEN and WHERE you will be at certain times of the day, adding new tasks into your agenda becomes a lot easier.
Consistency helps you establish habits: The way your brain forms habits is by REPEATEDLY doing behaviors. Over time, with enough repetitions, those behaviors get WIRED into your brain as habits. So, the more consistent your life is, the easier it is for habits to form.
Consistency helps you reach your full potential: When you are inconsistent, you simply aren’t putting enough time in to maximize your results. You are only going to TRULY excel at your goals if you put in the work on a long-term basis.

Consistency is Not the Flashiest Way to Reach Your Goals —> But it is the wisest

When I was younger, I always thought the way to achieve great things was by going ALL OUT.

If I wanted to get in better shape, I would work out for several hours a day with no breaks. Then I would burn out after a week.
If I wanted to write a story, I would spend a day writing for hours and hours. But then would forget about it for months.
If I wanted to complete a project for work, I would procrastinate and wait until the last second. Even when I managed to pull it off, it wouldn’t be as high quality.

But then I wised up and learned the truth:

Consistency is More Important Than Intensity

Because the key to sticking with a goal is consistent progress over time.

Imagine 2 scenarios:

Scenario A: Studying 10 hours one day (and then burning out).
And Scenario B: Studying 1 hour a day for 3 weeks.

Which of these scenarios sounds better to you?

The answer is clear. Scenario B adds up to 21 hours of studying. FAR more than the 10 hours in Scenario A.

Not to mention, your productivity would probably decline massively for a good chunk at the end of that 10-hour cram session.

Since it would be hard to stay focused for that long.

So, the more consistent studying plan also leads to more EFFICIENT studying.

Wait a second, what if you combined consistency AND intensity? With no productivity lapses? Wouldn’t that be EVEN better?

And the short answer is yes, that would be great.

Say you combined Scenarios A and B in the previous example and studied for 10 hours a day for 3 weeks straight.

If you managed do that then yes, absolutely you’d learn even more.

The problem is, in real life, could you really keep that up for 3 weeks?

If you can, that’s awesome. But for most of us, that’s not going to happen in the real world.

What’s going to happen, is you are going to get COMPLETELY exhausted after a few days.

And with your energy and motivation depleted, you will likely stop studying for weeks.

So, the wiser approach is to make smaller, but consistent progress.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If you want to get really great at something, over time you are going to want to ramp up the intensity.

But even then, you are usually best served by increasing the intensity slowly and consistently.

Not by making a huge leap because you are feeling extra motivated that day.

Section 2: Why Consistency is So Difficult

So, the question is, “why is consistency so difficult to achieve?”

There are several reasons why it is so hard to be consistent:

You rely too much on motivation: Back when I was less consistent, I would constantly rotate between 2 states: extreme productivity and doing nothing. And one of the biggest reasons why things fluctuated so often, was that I relied too much on motivation. If I felt motivated, I did stuff. But if I DIDN’T feel motivated, I said “forget it.”
Procrastination: When you procrastinate, you delay doing things you need or want to get done. Which makes it harder to consistently make progress towards your goals.
Distractions: Your bad habits and vices make it harder to be consistent because they tend to derail your plans.
Having Too Many Competing Priorities: When you keep flipping from one goal to the next, it’s tough to consistently stick with them all.
Emotions: Your negative emotions can make it tougher to follow through with your plans, because they make it more difficult to focus. Things like, guilt, regret, worry, or sadness.
Things Outside of Your Control: It is important to mention, that there are a lot of things that happen in life which are completely out of your control. For example, getting sick, having to get your car repaired, or serious life events like someone close to you passing. These unplanned things make being consistent EVEN harder.

Section 3: How to Learn to be Consistent

If you are asking yourself “how can I improve my consistency in life, given all these challenges?” I hear you. It is tough.

But it’s not impossible!

Here is a 9-step method for how to learn to be consistent.

These tactics have helped me become FAR more consistent with my goals.

Step 1: Have a Stable Sleep Schedule

In order to build consistency, you need to establish regular patterns of behavior.

And that all starts with when you:

Wake up
And go to bed

If you wake up at 7am some days and noon other days, it’s going to be extremely difficult to develop consistency in your life.

There are several reasons why having a stable sleep schedule will help you be more consistent.

Planning will be easier: Because you will know what times of the day you will be awake and active.
Getting good sleep every night improves your mental and physical health: Which puts you in a better position to commit to your goals.
You can start to form other habits AROUND those regular times you wake up and go to bed: Such as meditating, journaling, or working out.

You might be wondering if you can vary your sleep schedule on the weekends. And the answer is —> it’s better for your internal clock if you don’t.

But if you DO sleep in later on the weekends, make sure your weekend sleep schedule is:

(A) Not WILDLY different from your weekday schedule.
And (B) does not vary TOO much weekend-to-weekend.

Recommended Article: How to Change the Habit of Sleeping Late

Step 2: Have a Solid Morning Routine

This is one of the best ways to build consistency.

Morning routines are a series of habits you do as soon as you get out of bed.

For example:

Put on your gym clothes
Floss and brush your teeth
Workout
Shower
And meditate for 5 minutes

Morning routines can help you be consistent, for 3 reasons:

They require you to start each and every day the same way.
Starting your morning off consistently often spills over into the rest of the day as well. Because you are more likely to be productive coming off a focused morning routine. As opposed to playing games or watching Netflix the whole morning.
If you ever have a bad day where your plans go off course, morning routines can help you get back on track the next morning.

Step 3: Have a Regular Night Routine

Just like morning routines, night routines are very helpful in developing consistency.

Night routines are a series of habits you do before going to sleep.

For example:

Journal for 5 minutes
Read for 20 minutes
Floss and brush teeth
Go to bed

There are 3 reasons why night routines help you be consistent.

They help you transition into sleep: Since you get in the habit of going to bed RIGHT after your night routine ends. And that makes it easier for you to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
Night routines help you avoid your vices: Before I had a regular night routine I followed, I was more likely to get distracted by things like video games and TV. And all the time I spent on my vices took away from the time and energy I could have used on my goals.
They improve your consistency the next day: For example, the day after a 4am game playing night, I would often skip out on plans because I was too tired. But with a night routine in place, that was much less likely to happen.

Step 4: Focus on Forming Habits (Instead of Just Doing Things When You Feel Like It)

Habits are behaviors which are SO ingrained into your brain that you do them EVEN when you are:

Tired
Unmotivated
Or emotionally spent

Habits help you stay on track in the face of resistance.

Here are some keys to forming good, consistent habits that you can stick with:

Don’t try to add too many habits at once: Often, it’s best to just stick with 1 new habit at a time.
Start small: It’s going to be easiest to form a habit if you make it as small as possible. For example, instead of trying to meditate 30 minutes a day, try doing just 5 minutes instead. At least at first.
Try Habit Stacking: This is a technique talked about by James Clear, which involves pairing a new behavior you WANT to do with an existing habit which you ALREADY do. The idea is to place the new behavior before or after a current, strong habit of yours. Doing that will increase the likelihood the NEW behavior becomes a habit too.

The more habits you add into your life, the more consistent your life will become.

Recommended article: 11 Secrets to Forming Good Habits That Stick

Step 5: Learn to be Consistent by Writing Down Your Plans

If you don’t have a regular schedule and specific routines you follow each day, you are going to end up just doing things on a whim.

So, if you want to learn to be consistent, make sure to write down your plans.

It doesn’t matter what the format is. It could be:

A note-taking app
An excel spreadsheet
A notepad
Or anything else you prefer

Here are some things to keep in mind when creating your to-do list:

Break your goals into small, manageable pieces: That will help for 2 reasons. First, it will force you to think through the details of how to execute the goals. And second, it will make each item on your list less intimidating.
Plan out when you are going to work on things: Have some sort of game plan for when you are going to work on different tasks. You don’t have to have it down to the minute, but you are less likely to put something off if you have a SPECIFIC plan for when you are going to do it.
Follow through: It’s totally fine if there are days you have to re-schedule something, but you want to get in the habit of following through with the items on your list as OFTEN as you can.

Once I started writing down my goals AND sticking with what I wrote, I really improved my consistency in life.

Step 6: Have a Diet and Exercise Plan

Having a diet and exercise plan is another great way to help build consistency.

This is for 3 reasons:

It will ensure that key parts of your life are very consistent week-to-week: You will have types of food or meals you eat regularly, possibly at similar times each day. And you will workout on set days of the week, when your exercise routine calls for it.
When you are healthy physically, your brain will be in a better position to follow through with your goals: That’s because you will be sharper, more alert, and performing at your strongest.
Exercise and diet can spill over into other areas of your life: For example, let’s say you work out in the morning. That might lead to you showering right after you work out. And then showering might get you up, moving, and ready to do other productive things.

Here are a few things to factor in when choosing the right diet and workout plan (in terms of helping you build consistency):

Eat meals at roughly the same times each day.
Don’t do extreme diets or workouts that make you want to quit after a week.
Don’t change your diet and exercise plan TOO often. (Periodic adjustments are fine, but don’t constantly tweak them).

Recommended article: How to Stick to a Workout Schedule

Step 7: Establish Clear Boundaries in Your Personal and Professional Relationships

One thing that has at times made it harder for me to be consistent, is the relationships I’ve had with other people in my life.

Personal relationships can sometimes get in the way of you being consistent. Especially if you have friends, family members, or partners who have different lifestyles. For example, if you are trying to cut out a bad habit that they tempt you to participate in. Or if they have a different sleep schedule.
Professional relationships can also make it tougher to be consistent. For instance, you may have a boss, co-worker, or client who asks you to work at times you didn’t plan to. Which throws off your schedule.

In both the personal and professional situations, I’ve found it helps to establish CLEAR boundaries for when you are going to be available. AND for what you are willing to do.

Understandably, it isn’t always going to be possible to get everything EXACTLY the way you want it.

Especially with work, family, or significant others.

So, you may have to compromise a bit.

But if at all possible, try to set some sort of boundaries. In order to make sure your schedule isn’t impacted TOO much.

Step 8: Learn to be Consistent by Focusing on the Process, Not Just the Outcome

Another way to learn to be consistent, is to practice focusing on the process, NOT just the end result.

I used to focus mostly on outcomes.

But the problem was, I would get easily discouraged when progress took longer than expected.

Which would lead to me giving up on my goals.

But then I started to focus more on learning to enjoy the process itself. And that made me MUCH more resilient and persistent with sticking with things.

Don’t get me wrong, outcomes are important too.

But results take TIME to accomplish, especially for long-term goals.

Therefore, focusing more on the process can help you stay on course EVEN when the results take a while.

Step 9: Don’t Put Pressure on Yourself to Be Consistent ALL the Time

Remember, consistency doesn’t mean perfection.

Sometimes life just hits you and it’s impossible to be perfectly consistent.

Whether that’s due to:

Realizing you are going about things the wrong way (and needing to try a new approach).
Reasonable shifts in your goals, desires, and preferences.
Or things completely outside of your control. Like getting sick, family responsibilities, or a million other real-world situations.

When these things happen, it’s perfectly reasonable to pivot and make adjustments along the way.

Those adjustments could involve:

Changing or re-prioritizing things.
Adjusting the specific tactics you use to get to your goals.
Or re-arranging your schedule.

The important thing is just to make sure you are thinking strategically through these kinds of changes.

And not just tweaking things impulsively without a good reason.

Free “How to Learn to be Consistent” Cheat Sheet

Click the button above to get a free, PDF cheat on “how to learn to be consistent.”

Recommended Articles:

Why Self-Discipline is Difficult (And How to Make it Easier)
How to Stop Putting Off Work (& Get Stuff Done!)
THIS is How to Build self-discipline (a collection of resources on how to develop self-discipline)