Can you think of an area in your life where you’ve tried and failed to be consistent at something. I certainly can.

And in the past, I’ve let my inner critic sabotage me when I fail with harsh words that kept me in a state of fear, anger, and disappointment.

Through the training, and work I’ve put in to up level my inner peace and freedom, I now have new ways of being with failure and with the inner critic. I’d like to share some of those ways of being with you today.

This morning, I was dancing to the upbeat music blasting through my headphones at the end of a particularly great workout and I looked in the mirror and just thought “damn, I look good!” 😏 haha

I was proud that after a back injury, a wedding, the holidays, and lots of stop-go-stop-go I was FINALLY in my groove again with my workout routine. I took a second to celebrate how far I had come with my consistency - to celebrate my beautiful body and how good it feels to move. 🥳 I let that excitement flood my system fully and I tell you what, once you get a hit of that - you’ll become addicted to celebrating your progress. So much so that even the inner critic will perk up and smile at you a bit. 😜

From starting and quitting to consistent steady progress, here are my top 10 tips to stay consistent with anything.

1. Make it true to your authenticity and desires

When you decide to dedicate yourself to a new habit you want to be consistent with, get curious about where the desire is coming from. Why do you want to do this? How will it serve you? What do you want to feel by accomplishing this goal?

2. Clear the fears

When you go for something outside your comfort zone, or anything new for that matter, it is normal for fears to pop up. They can be in your face, or quite subtle. These fears love to hide behind excuses and if you aren’t aware of them, can sabotage your progress. Clearing the fear is an important step that makes it easier to do what you set out to do vs. forcing yourself into action.

3. Set clear and honest expectations for yourself

Set a pace that you can maintain. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It helps to think through things that could get in the way of you sticking to your commitment ahead of time, and make a plan to deal with them. Consider using good - better - best goals. And remember, doing your habit for even as small as two minutes, is better than not doing it at all.

4. Schedule it with reminders

A simple reason people don’t stay consistent with their habits is because they forget! This one is easy to fix. Schedule your habit in your calendar, with reminders so that you don’t forget to do it.

5. Small simple steps

Your goal doesn’t have to be mastered within the next day or even the next week. Maybe it’s a life-long habit, like exercise. Break your goal into mini achievable milestones and routines to make it feel less overwhelming to your brain. Make the step actionable by adding a verb in front of it to prime your mind for doing.

For example, instead of labeling your reminder as Workout try, Complete workout, or Do workout. Make it easy on your brain by telling yourself very clearly what the exact one step you're going to take is.

6. Hold yourself accountable - but make it fun.

I love gamifying things. For example, I love to read. When I don’t feel like cleaning the house, I play a game where I read chapter, then clean a part of the house. Then I get to read the next chapter. Doing this helps me break up the bigger task of cleaning the house into smaller steps. I also look forward to reading, so I get it done quick so I can get back to the next chapter.

Get creative with this and find ways to make your habit fun.

7. It’s okay to fail

Remember that missing a day, or falling off track is normal. Matter of fact, expect that you’ll probably mess up at some point. Shake it off. It doesn’t matter… if you try again. Often, it takes me a month or so to really get in a groove with a new habit I’m trying out. When you stumble, remind yourself that you’re going to get back up and failing is natural. James Clear gives a rule in Atomic Habits to "never miss twice". This rule gives you grace to mess up or skip once in awhile but by never missing twice, you keep one day from becoming two from becoming never. Try that rule on and see if it helps you!

8. Celebrate along the way

Give your brain that dopamine hit by celebrating your progress. You’ll start to enjoy it so much that you’ll look forward to your habit even more than you did before. This can look like checking off a box, giving yourself a reward after a certain amount of time, having a dance party and telling yourself “damn I look good” 😉. It can be anything, as long as you find it fun and it makes you feel good.

9. Don’t take yourself too seriously

The inner critic can be quick to make things feel like life or death. That part of you works hard to put the pressure on you because it wants to push you into action. But here’s the secret, when you stop taking yourself so seriously, the pressure comes off and you can just let yourself shine in the process. It is truly magical to witness what you attract when the walls come down and you can just be yourself.

10. Turn a mountain into a molehill

Sometimes your problems feel so so big. And first I want to validate that it is okay for your problems to feel big. Sometimes, they really are. Often though, it is just a story you are telling yourself. And because you think about it so much, your thoughts keep piling up and up and up until your problem or lack of action feels like an impossible mountain to climb. What if instead of a mountain, it was just a little molehill that you could step right over? What would that feel like? What kind of action would you take if the problem wasn’t so big? Try sitting with that and see if any creative ideas on how to take action pop up.

Thanks for reading my top 10 tips on how to stay consistent with anything! And here’s a bonus tip for you…

⭐️ Bonus Tip ⭐️ Hire a coach!

The fastest way to break habits of inconsistency is to get a coach to help you bust through that barrier and get results fast.

If you’d like to talk more about what it would look like to have a coach support you in your process, I’d love to help. Reach out at any time!