What I learned about consistency and how I deal with boredom.
You know, I’ve never really considered myself a writer. Even though I loved writing stories in school, I never really made it a habit to write on a continuous basis. Maybe it was a language issue. As you can see I write in English, even though I’m German, grew up in Germany and learned English in school. But I always felt more comfortable in English when sharing my thoughts. I don’t really know why, it just seems a more comprehensive language to me.
The struggle with excitement
I struggle a lot with consistency, I guess that’s always been a major issue for me when starting something new. I’m a very excitable person and I love to explore new ways of sharing my ideas. But sticking to something long term — wow that’s really hard for me!
I didn’t really stick to anything until I got my first guitar at the age of 14. I started playing and I tell you, it was really frustrating at first. It hurt, my fingers were bleeding regularly from the steel strings. It sounded horrible and I couldn’t even stick to the beat. But I stuck to it, playing about 8 hours every day. And I got better. But only because it have me a way of clearing my mind, giving myself time to reflect and breath. Until this day, I don’t really remember more than one song by heart. But I love improvising, even though I don’t know much about musical theory.
Just let it flow
It’s kind of the same thing with writing, whether it’s copywriting or any other kind of creative writing. I can sit down and think, write down whatever comes to mind without really thinking about structure. I just write down whatever comes to mind, and that’s a lot easier to me than talking to someone face to face. Still it’s more of an on-off relationship that I have with writing.
Same thing with artistic expression in any other field. I was a graphic designer for about 10 years because it gave me a way to earn money from my creative output. It taught me how to stick to a field of expertise even when I didn’t always felt like doing it. Showing up everyday made me a better designer, a better creative and a better human being I would say. Still after 10 years I decided to pursue a new field because I was aching for a more direct way of really helping people.
Challenges with staying consistent
With my newfound freedom also came a lot of new challenges, that also stem from this lack of consistency. But I’m slowly learning to be okay with that. We all know that consistency is king in every field where we want to achieve mastery or even proficiency. But still every one of us has to learn what feels old at the right time. I’m a big believer of changing up things just for the sake of novelty and to make sure I don’t get bored, because I know that if that’s the case I will stop whatever I’m pursuing for good because it just doesn’t work for me. So as long as I can change up my way of expressing myself and connecting to the world I manage to stick with the overall activity.
If you’re a creative, a sales person, an entrepreneur or a business person you know how hard it can be to just not give up sometimes and stick to your goal.
Switch it up
So my quick tip for you today is: Make sure you show up everyday, but switch up your activities.
If you’re anything like me I know you sometimes just don’t feel like making the call or write that ad, but even if you don’t feel like doing the one specific thing, be sure to do at least something for your business or whatever it is that you want to achieve. Don’t lose sight of your overall goal. There are many roads that lead to Rome and sometimes you have to switch up your vehicle, but make sure you stay on your track.
Your turn
What are your thoughts on consistency? What do you do to stay on track and how do you deal with overwhelm? I’d love to know your thoughts so please give me your feedback on this topic. If you liked this short piece please leave a few claps, it’s much appreciated. Also if you’re interested in a specific topic, let me know and I’ll be happy to share my thoughts.
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