The One You Feed - Mini Episode- Consistency

Episode Date: August 16, 2015

Mini Episode: ConsistencyThe importance of consistency in behavior change. Consistency of action is critical. It's amazing what a series of small steps taken day after day can do. "What you do every day matters than what you do once in awhile"- Gretchen Rubin "A jug fills drop by drop"- The Buddha"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative" -Oscar WildeOur Sponsor this Week is Spirituality and Health Magazine. Click here for your free trial issue and special offer.    Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy:Kino MacGregorStrand of OaksMike Scott of the WaterboysTodd Henry- author of Die EmptyRandy Scott HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallyknowreally.com

and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The Really Know Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everybody, it's Eric and I am back with another mini-episode, albeit it's been a while since I did the last one. I get so many notes from people saying that they really, really like these, so I thought I would try and get back into doing them consistently. And actually, consistency will be the topic of this week's mini episode. Before I jump into it, I just want to remind folks we've got our one-on-one program. If you like some of the things you're hearing on the show but you're having trouble putting that into your own life or putting it

into action, you can go to oneufeed.net slash coaching and take a look there at the program. There's another two weeks left on the introductory pricing and after that the price will go up by $200. So if you're interested, this is a great time to sign up. So as I said, the topic today is consistency, which had you told me at one point in my life that I would be advocating the benefits of consistency, I probably would have told you you were crazy. I think there was certainly a time in life where I thought the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and do exactly what I felt was the answer for me. And I certainly learned that to a certain degree, structure liberates. But there are some quotes on consistency out there. Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of my favorites

said, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. And Oscar Wilde said that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Now, I think certainly what Emerson was talking about, unimaginative. Now, I think certainly what Emerson was talking about, and I think Huxley probably to a great degree, is consistency of thought. As in, I thought this before, so I will continue to think it, versus opening our mind and being willing to change our mind, change our opinion. And like in our episode with Maria Popova, we talked about how important that is, being willing to revisit your opinions, be willing to think about something different than what you've previously thought of it before. That, however, is not the type of consistency that we're talking about. The type of consistency we're talking about today is consistency of action, particularly in trying to make a change in your life. So trying

to lose weight, trying to get in better shape, trying to write a book, trying to get a dissertation done, whatever those things are, consistency is really, really important. Gretchen Rubin has a quote that I really love, and it says that what you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while. And this is absolutely true. I'm always amazed, you know, I say on the show a lot, I'm amazed by what a series of small steps done consistently over a period of time can accomplish. And actually, it's easier to continue to do something consistently day after day than it is to do it once in a while. It seems like doing something every day must be really impossible. But the truth is that if you do something every day, it becomes easier to do. It becomes more of a habit, more of a routine, and you don't have to force yourself into it as much. It's those things we do semi-regular that are often very difficult to do and we have to talk ourselves into a lot of the time. The Buddha said that a jug fills drop by drop. So again, same idea here.

We just keep slowly putting things in. And an analogy, it's a cliche almost at this point where we talk about things being a marathon, not a sprint. But for anything in your life that's worth doing or any positive change, you want it to last. And the key to lasting, one of the keys to lasting is to be consistent and to do an amount that you can do consistent and to do an amount that you can do regularly and every day. So it's much better to, again, find something, start very small with it. Let's just take meditation, meditate for three minutes a day, but do that consistently. Do it every day for seven days, then go to four minutes or five minutes. And we keep talking about these things on the show, but they're so critical. You know, we keep talking about them because they're so critical. They're so simple that we tend to overlook them. James Clear talks about

the idea of an average speed. And so, you know, I talk about this at looking at your habits or your productivity over a longer time frame. But what he's saying is that if you pay attention to how fast you're going at any one moment, you're trying to maximize it. I'm going to try and go 55 miles an hour right now, but then I'm going 10, so I'm frustrated, and then I'm stopped at a red light. Whereas if you just look at your average speed over the whole trip, or you look at, I talk about productivity about, we want to look at our productivity over weeks and months, not a day. If we focus on the day, it's easy to burn ourselves out. over weeks and months, not a day. If we focus on the day, it's easy to burn ourselves out.

But if we look at it over a period of time, then we're able to make decisions that can keep us in a place that we're able to sustain, you know, back to that idea of average speed that James Clear has. One other thing with consistency is important that we don't mix up consistency with being perfect. So if we intend to be consistent to meditate every day, for example, or to exercise every day, things are going to happen. And so it's important to be able to do a couple things. One is to improvise and say, okay, well, I normally like to do a 15-minute run outdoors. That didn't work, so I'll walk around the building a couple times today. Being flexible in doing that can be really helpful. And then not being too hard on yourself if you miss. Things come up in life we miss. The important thing is to get right back on it

and not sort of just, you know, throw the baby out with the bathwater. One other image to leave you with as you think about this is we can think about our habits as sort of a plant. Every time we exercise the habit, we're taking care of that plant we're watering it we're feeding it we're giving it sunlight and so obviously by doing that very consistently that plant's in a lot better shape than if we do those things sporadically or we go long periods and we give it a ton of water okay well i'm going to dump you know a gallon of water on it today and then i don't touch it for two weeks you'd be far better off you, administering a little bit of water to that plant day after day. So those are just some thoughts on consistency. It's, as I said, I think it's one of the key things to making any sort of successful behavior

change in your life. So hopefully that's helpful. A new episode out on Tuesday. Let me know what you think as always and thank you for listening. Bye. you