Why you can't be Consistent

I always find myself at the top

• Being conscious

• Getting my tasks done

• Being productive and acing my progress

and within days, you can find me on my couch,

• watching Tv

• craving sugar

• living unintentionally

• scrolling youtube shorts

• Daydreaming all day for hours

Then I start to feel like shit and guilty until I get fed up and take positive action.

This is what I call “The downward spiral”

Proof:

So, to solve the problem with consistency once and for all

I spent the past month in deep shit and went through 3 yrs of my journal and found 6 potent reasons why you can’t be consistent (and how to solve it)

But, Why is consistency so important in the first place?

Because you can achieve nothing but

• anxiety

• Zero progress

• Low self-esteem, self-doubt, depression, and all other mental illness without it. Period.

(Trust me - I went through all)

Here are the 6 potent reasons why you can’t be consistent:

1. Your “Fucked up” Environment

An environment has a significant impact on your consistency

• What you see

• What you hear

• what you eat

• Whom you’re surrounded by

influences who you are and how you behave.

You can’t grow in an environment surrounded by:

• Pessimistic people

• Comfort zones

• Distractions

• Sugar

and cheap dopamine

Those hardcore self-improvement gurus out there may tell you “You lack discipline, that’s why”

But that's bullshit

You can’t rely on discipline when it comes to being consistent

I know this will piss off a lot of people but this must be told.

your discipline relies on your willpower - a renewable finite resource - Just like your phone battery

Once it's drained, the system goes down.

If you’re in a fucked up environment, you have to make constant decisions saying “No, No, No” every time:

• When you walk past the tv

• When you see your mom eat a dessert

• When you look at your phone lying on the table waiting for you

This drains your willpower drastically.

If you lose just 1 of those inner battles (as you run out of willpower) you’re done.

You’ll enter the downward spiral from there.

What should you do then?

Rely on your system.

Build an ecosystem where you don’t have to deal with inner battles

• Move out of your home

• Throw your phone out of your room

• Use noise-canceling headphones - Listen to brain.fm when working

by optimizing your environment you avoid any potential distraction that could derail you and you could stay consistent.

Just like Newton’s 1st law: An object in motion, stays in motion unless interrupted by an external opposite force

You don’t have to push yourself to stay in motion, avoid potential interruptions. that’s it.

2. Your “Psycho” Psyche

Psyche: Your soul, mind & spirit

Fact: Your psyche wants you to ruin your own life

it’s hasn’t evolved to make you:

• Seek discomfort

• focus on 1 task for hours

• stop pursuing cheap dopamine

You’ll feel the slight push by your mind - (if you’re conscious) to get you to pursue a cheap dopamine act especially when you feel uncomfortable seeking good.

You may give into those inner voices:

• Just a few minutes

• It's been a long time, why not?

Once you give in, the domino effect begins.

You have to realize that you’re not falling off track all of a sudden. It’s a slow domino effect.

How do I avoid this?

Now, that you’ve realized that your psyche is not your friend, that’s all you need, to not fall victim to its push again.

Be conscious.

3. Lack of Priorities

Being consistent is a game of priority.

If you don’t know what’s your priority, consistency is impossible.

Build your priority list

• Write your top 5 priorities in life

• Whenever you make a decision, go through your list

make the right decision every time without feeling guilty.

My priority list:

1. Family

2. Friends

3. Health

4. Work

5. Peace & satisfaction

I prioritize my friends more than my work but that shouldn’t influence the time I spend with them instead, it should remind me why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Also, accept that you can’t have it all.

Everything comes with an opportunity cost. Just make sure the opportunity cost is not more than what you gained - using the priority list.

4. Lack of Observation

Constantly monitor your system

Observation is important to find the cause of the problem

If you happened to break your consistency and you don’t know why it happened, then you’ll most probably repeat the same problem and wonder why you’re not improving.

“Finding the problem is the half solution.”

How do you observe?

Start writing a journal

Record your everyday activities.

Start with simple questions:

• what did I do today?

• where I went wrong?

• How can I improve that part?

You’ll be surprised how much value you quickly your system improves just by journaling every day.

5. Lack of Sleep

You’ll be surprised how much sleep influences your chances of being consistent:

A lack of good sleep affects your:

• Emotional balance which critically affects your ability to win your inner battles

• You become easy prey for distractions

• your mind overrides your actions

• Destroys cognitive thinking

and finally takes you on a tour of a downward spiral

Sleep for 7-8 hrs every day or get fucked

The choice is yours

6. Lack of Dopamine

You and I have suffer from lack of motivation all the time

We feel unmotivated:

• right after having a meal

• after you saw a drop in your follower count

• because nothing went the way to expected for the day

or for no good reason.

Lack of motivation is a sign of dopamine depletion. Dopamine - the neuromodulator responsible for mood, motivation, and drive.

How to overcome this?

To get your dopamine level back to its average level more quicker,

you have to do something that sucks (or at least do nothing at all, nothing)

It could be anything:

• Staring at a plain wall for 25 mins

• Eating without watching or listening to any media

• doing the tasks that you’ve been procrastinating with

if I were you, I’ll go with the last option. It sucks and is also productive. Win-Win

Yeah! You find it counterintuitive but it works

By the time you complete the task, you’ll feel absolutely motivated to move to the next one.

Alright!, There you have the knowledge you need to stay consistent - This time for real.

Make use of these knowledge and improve your game.

If you want personalised help to overcome your problems with consistency, then feel free to drop me a DM on Twitter

P.S. If you wish to let me know of anything about this letter, then feel free to reply to this mail. I’ll reply every mail.

Alright then,

See you next week,

Barath Raj