As I was cooking dinner the other night, listening to my favorite songs and sautéing onions, it hit me. There is one single key to success in everything in life.
It’s consistency.
I realized it hardly matters what you do, it’s how you do it. It’s about showing up every day and giving your unique energy to whatever it is you’re working towards.
consistency | the key to success
Our habits, our everyday actions, are the foundation of success. Success isn’t in the realm of immediacy and instant gratification, it’s in the mundane. That’s where the magic is.
I’m currently reading “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” by Stephen Hawking, the renowned British physicist and cosmologist, and he was talking about how it took him and his team over 40 years to build the first gravitational-wave detector (a device used in black hole physics). Forty years!
The message I took from this was that monumental changes and success take time. We have begun to expect instant gratification in our lives and it prevents us from growing to our full potential.
Consistency is key to every aspect of life. Everything from our health to our hobbies is positively influenced by consistency. Let’s dive deeper into how our daily habits can influence each of these “categories” of life.
work
When it comes to our work, there are endless opportunities and options out there. I’ve been on the entrepreneurial path for a few years now and I’ve picked up a few things from the business owners around me.
The main thing I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s how you do it.
There are millions of successful businesses out there ranging from selling scrunchies to making funny YouTube videos to upcycling used clothing. With all of these businesses, it’s not so much about what they’re selling because there’s a market for everything. Instead, their success came from the business owner’s commitment to consistency.
Behind every thriving business, or successful professional, are daily, consistent habits. It’s the business owner who showed up every day, believed in the power of consistency, and stuck with their goals through it all.
With this, I realized you could be anything, do anything, and become successful as long as you commit to that one thing. I’ve dabbled in a lot of things and if I didn’t see results after a month or so, I’d lose interest and try something else. But I was going against that one key to success. Consistency.
As long as you show up every day, be consistent, keep your focus, and remember your why, you’ll end up successful whatever you decide to do.
exercise
Working out and exercising is another great example of how it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s how you do it.
You could do pilates or weightlifting or running, and they’ll all help you maintain a healthy, active body. There is no one perfect workout. Find what works best for you.
It’s more important to find something you enjoy than it is to find something that gives you the “perfect body”. If you find something you enjoy, you’re more likely to show up every day, which will get you closer to your body goals than anything else.
eating habits
I’m not one for typical diet culture, as it really harmed my relationship with food, but I am passionate about nutritional and balanced eating. Consistency is key to healthy eating habits.
I personally love the 80/20 mindset, where you focus on eating nutritionally about 80% of the time and enjoy fun foods the rest of the 20%. I’ve learned that this helps to keep the balance between nourishing my body nutritionally and soulfully. You’re better off having a cookie a day than restricting yourself all week just to binge on a pack of twelve on Saturday.
It’s all about balance. Have dessert after every dinner, enjoy your favorite comfort foods from childhood, because when you’re also making nutritionally-dense meals for yourself a few times throughout the day, you have that balance. This way of eating helps to maintain consistency, which results in a happier, calmer, and healthier body.
money
I love money. I love learning about it, I love making it, and I love spending it. I’m looking forward to the day when it’s no longer slightly taboo to talk about money. All it does is hold us back by preventing us from getting comfortable with money and gaining the proper financial education needed to have a healthy relationship with money.
From all that I’ve learned about money, between dozens of books and courses, consistency is the key to success.
For example, smart investing is a slow game. Like with a Roth IRA, if you consistently put a few hundred into it every month, by the time you retire, it’ll be well over a million dollars (depending on how early you started the account). It’s all about that compound interest, baby.
This is just one example of the importance of consistency when it comes to money. It also pertains to high-yield savings accounts, stock market investing, and even professional skill building—which can result in more income.
skills and hobbies
The key to leveling up in skills and hobbies is—you guessed it—consistency. Whether you love photography, baking, or painting murals, you’re only going to get better with consistency.
I’ll be honest, I have an awful perfectionist streak in me. Whenever I try a new skill and am not good at it within an hour or two, I become annoyed and discouraged to ever try something new again. It’s all quite dramatic and goes directly against the laws of nature.
We cannot plant a sapling and expect it to become a tree after watering it once. We cannot dig up the plant every few hours to see if the roots have grown. What we must do is nurture the plant, ensure it gets proper sunlight, and water it every day. We must trust the process.
Our daily small actions have a cumulative ripple effect. With patience and regular tending to, our pursuits in life flourish.
the key to success: balance & consistency
It’s not about never taking rest days or having a treat. It’s about showing up and giving your best every day—whatever your best may look like that day. Every day will look different depending on your mood and energy levels. That’s okay. Relax, you don’t have to be perfect.
Throw perfection out of the window. All it does is cage us. Imperfection is a gateway. If you can get comfortable with releasing work that isn’t perfect, you’re golden. You’re free. Remember: done is better than perfect.
I mean, do you know how many mediocre millionaires there are out there? And you think you, a brilliant, unique human being, can’t become one too? All they did was have the audacity and bold self-confidence to believe they could—and they did.
Keep your head above water and keep moving forward no matter what. Believe in yourself, in your vision, above all else. You are the creator of your world.
Just keep swimming
— Dory <3
it’s all about you
At the end of the day, it all comes back to you.
What do you love enough to be consistent with? What makes you excited to get out of bed in the mornings? That’s what is going to guarantee you success. Specifically, easy and effortless success. Because when you move through this world with an open heart and with a passion for something, everything has a way of working out.
Success doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. It doesn’t have to be late-night coffees, cold professionalism, and missed time with family. It can be fueled by joy, gratitude, and passion instead.
So, take the pressure off yourself to find the “perfect” workout or to choose the “right” professional path, and just commit to what you enjoy and show up every day. That, my friend, is the key to success.
For some more guidance on all things success and self-improvement, feel free to check out my post on the five books that changed my life or easy mindfulness practices that aren’t meditation.
