Life can be difficult. Crossing the ocean will bring upset water, the same way journey in life will bring you difficult times. It is a truth that all people have experienced at some points in their life when trying to reach a goal, or level of consistency. That be in startups, exercise, and other dedicated lifestyle choices.
In this blog post I will discuss the importance of being consistent, and also get into the relationship of emotions and life goals, as well as general view of life purpose. Furthermore I will unveil a new consistency tool (click to skip the rest and read about Keep the Chain now).
What is consistency?
Consistency origins from the late 16th century, from the Latin word consistent. The meaning can be translated to “Standing Firm”. And this is exactly what it is: To stand firm, and carry on, even when the freezing cold rain is pouring relentlessly on you in the open sea.
What is the purpose of your life?
Before we get to the consistency part, we will need to explore the purpose of life. Now, outline your goals on a piece of paper.
Is it to run a successful business? Exercise daily? Improve your creativity? Or just be a better person? Write all your goals down, and try build a mental image of how you will feel reaching these goals. Imagine how your life will be at that time.
Now put the pen down, and ask yourself this important question; what is the purpose of your life?
We only have a limited time on earth so making the best of it, and share our joys, is important. To achieve this we need to have a reason to wake up in the morning, with a smile on our face, for the new day to come. This is where your list of goals come into play. Feeling progress in life always makes people excited e.g; moving to a new place, getting a new job, travel, loosing weight, and gain more business.
Having goals will make you feel this way, and make you happier and more energy rich.
To reach these goals you have to be emotional about them. It has to be your ideals! That is the reason you need to build a mental image on how it feels to reach them. Your emotions has a huge influence in your decisions, and you should use them in a proactive way. When you are emotional with your goals, not only will you work harder to achieve them, but you will also feel much better and more alive on your journey.
It gives reason to your life, having meaningful goals. Your life will have a purpose, however simple the goal might be. Every day that you do progress towards that goal, will feel like a day well-spent.
However, there are pitfalls that will demotivate you. A long journey in the sea can bring doubts to whether you will reach your destination, the same way most people will experience days when their purpose seams meaningless, or even impossible. Many would prefer to go get a beer, eat some nice food, or just do something else to get this sense of failing off their mind.
This is where consistency comes into play. You have to stand firm.
Being consistent is the key
Let’s go back to the list. Choose just one goal to focus on. It should be the goal that is the most important for your life right now. A goal requires consistent effort. Too many goals at the same time can and will blur the vision of where you are heading in the future, and in the end work against your progress. Pick just one goal.
Being consistent is what is the difference from failure and success. If you cannot keep a consistent level of pushing towards the goal, you will likely fall back to your old habits, and simply give up. Worse yet, this will give you a feeling of not living up to your ideals, and your life purpose. You might drown this feeling with TV, food, or other feel-good right now impulses, but the feeling of failure will still exists deep inside you.
You have to be consistent in your decisions, and the goal you have picked. Promise that to yourself. If you think you will not be able keep this promise, then stop reading more of this article. You will need to get more life experience first.
If you can promise yourself that you will attain this goal, it is time to unveil a great tool that will help you along. Just remember; the push has to come from you. Nobody else will be able to do it for you.
Remember that consistency is not about giving it 110% every time. It is about a standing firm. You continue despite the lows, and also despite the highs. It all comes down to keeping a consistent push towards your goal.
Keep the Chain: New goal setting tools coming from Dream Conception
We are excited to introduce a prototype of one tool of many to come from Dream Conception.
Keep the Chain, a free, open source consistency tool, will display a timeline of all the days in the months. Every day you have done a satisfactory push towards your goal, you should mark off the day. Eventually you will have a chain of days together. The goal is that you build the chain of days as long as possible.
To keep consistency in your goals is to push every day (with rest period included if needed). By using Keep the Chain, you are visualizing your progress, and keeping it up.
For best effect, the timeline should be as visible as possible for you. Every day you should watch it, and build the mental image of what your ideal is. It is easy to “forget” when you do not see your list of goals every day. When you see this timeline every day, you will be reminded of what needs to be done, as well as what you have done in the past.
Don’t worry if you break the chain. It is perfectly fine to have some off days. Just remember to get back on soonest possible again!
Keep the Chain, has some features that help achieve consistency;
- Display of time left of the day to remind you of doing your job
- Achievements when keeping a long chain for added motivation
- Social share to display your progress, and get feedback
- Keep the Chain is free, open source, and can be downloaded
Try it out, and let us know if you have ideas for improvements! With Keep the Chain, you can achieve consistent goal attainment.
Conclusion
Now that you are ready to navigate the open sea, I want you to review this check list.
- Write down a list of your goals.
- Pick one goal as the most important for your life right now. Create a mental image to test how this goal will affect you, and how emotionally connected you are to it.
- Keep consistent push every day. I suggest that you use Keep the Chain to track it.
- When you feel the goal has been attained, rinse and repeat.
Thank you for your time.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
Dan Schultzer is an active experienced entrepreneur, starting the Being Proactive groups, Dream Conception organization, among other things. You can find him at 