From the desk of Harsh Strongman
Subj: Why am I inconsistent? (And how to be more consistent?)
A question that I frequently hear people ask is “How do I be more consistent?” – a common problem, lots of people face this issue.
There are many factors to why someone may be inconsistent with the habits they wish to create or the goals they pursue – and the explanations often have something to do with a lack of willpower and discipline.
It is true, the overwhelming majority of the population lacks the willpower and discipline needed to stick by their goals, and it costs them their entire potential in the long run.
However, it is not the entire truth.
It doesn’t just take discipline and willpower to do something; it takes a desire to do it.
Discipline and willpower are tools that help you tolerate stress better and help you maintain consistency in the short run, but it all starts with desire. Any activity can only be sustainable in the long term in the presence of real desire, for no matter how tough you are, willpower eventually runs out.
If you truly desire to be fit, you will be fit (to the best of your ability).
If you truly desire to be rich, you will be rich (to the best of your ability).
If you truly desire to do X, you will do X (to the best of your ability).
Consistency is a matter of intense desire.
No matter what you want to do, if you want to stay consistent at it, you have to truly desire the outcomes your actions will bring.
And your desire has to be real; you have to feel it, to live it as if your life depended on it.
It cannot be a “kind of”, “sort of”, or “good to have” type of wanting.
It has to be real and intense.
Like a hungry man’s desire for food, a thirsty man’s desire for water, and an alcoholic’s desire for alcohol.
A hungry man is not “inconsistent” with his meals.
He doesn’t stop halfway to “take a break” – he eats all he can.
He is not half-hearted with his wanting; he can feel his desire in his being and pursues it till he gets his desired outcome (a full stomach).
Most people are half-hearted with their desires.
They want something, but they only “kind of” want it – which is not enough for total dedication.
They are like the half-full man, who is hungry enough to want food, but not hungry enough to go to the kitchen and cook some.
So he ends up snacking – a halfway commitment that is not nearly as fulfilling as the real deal.
Inconsistency is simply a manifestation of a lack of real desire. To put it another way, how consistent you are is a representation of how intense your desire level for those outcomes is.
If you truly wanted something, as if your life depended on it, you would be entirely devoted to whatever it took for you to achieve it.
You would not be “inconsistent”.
Yes, we are all human, and we all have bad days from time to time, but it would definitely not be a problem so big that it would hamper your progress.
You would not find yourself being “inconsistent” every fifth day.
Inconsistency is simply a lack of real desire (for the outcome).
Let me ask you a question.
If you are inconsistent with your workout regimen, and I tell you that I’d give you a billion dollars if you are consistent for 365 days straight – 90% of you will be in the gym for 365 days straight.
You will have good workouts and bad workouts, but not missed workouts.
You would be consistent because you so desired the outcome the activity will bring you (in this case money).
If you are inconsistent with your workouts when no money is offered on consistency, it is because you simply do not want a good, fit body enough.
You may protest, “but I want to be fit, I’m not lying!” but the truth is that you just like the idea of being fit (but you don’t really want it with the required degree of intensity).
Just like a teenager who wants to be a famous rockstar but never actually learns to sing or dance or play an instrument or try to perform – you just like the idea of success in the arena you are inconsistent with, you do not have the real intensity of desire that would allow you to be utterly devoted to it.
No other thing can sustainably force your body to move, to pursue something, to fully devote itself – only real desire can do that.
There is no magic pill, no special meditation, no program, no course that can help you be more consistent when that desire is missing.
All of these things can help you if you already have that desire in you by showing you the way and making you stronger and your path more efficient, but without that desire, they’re all just as worthless as money to a man dying of thirst in the middle of a desert.
For every pursuit you are inconsistent in, you must ask yourself, “why am I not already a success here?”, and you will have your answer.
It was a lack of deep desire.
And no, no one can give you desire – it has to come from you.
If you lack intense desire, you will always be inconsistent.
Hope this helps.
Your man,
Harsh Strongman
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