Consistency
Consistency is the often under-appreciated factor in the execution of any plan to build something. There are so many elements we need to bring together as we develop our respective crafts; imagination, curiosity, critical thinking etc, but if we don’t engage with these and many others regularly, we’re destined to fall short.
If one wishes to have a good diet for example, once one has an idea of what that might mean in terms of food and portions etc, the idea must be generally adhered to consistently over time. If one wishes to build wealth, once one has a plan in place, one’s income and investing practices must be as consistent as possible. In fact, building knowledge and expertise in any domain requires us to show consistency over longer periods of time. i.e. many months and years.
How do we commit to this as creatives? It’s such a simple and yet difficult thing to do. Why is it so difficult? As humans we often have difficulty with longer time horizons; commitment for a day or a week might not be too hard to perceive, but years are more difficult to picture. We also need discipline to maintain regularity with our work. How can we ensure that we overcome these tricky realities? At first, we must believe that this dedication over time will yield results until it becomes something more than blind belief, it becomes an observable truth. Our results back up the claim and inspire us to commit further time to the project. Perhaps more fundamentally however, we need a curiosity regarding the subject. A curiosity that keeps us coming back for more; ideally a love or deep fascination that puts us in our creative seat every day.
How do we plan our days accordingly? Unfortunately, I don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer to this. We all have different lives: different responsibilities, different amounts of time to commit at different points in the day and different abilities to focus. A guiding thought that has helped me is to think about the time you spend in a similar way to brushing your teeth. It’s simply something we do every day. I encourage you to allow this idea to settle in your mind and to view it in this in this way, at least for months at a time.
Further advice is to do it for yourself when no one else is paying attention, rather than waiting until you have a professional engagement. Many creatives I’ve met have never been able to summon the energy to regularly engage with what it is they do, preferring to wait until a relevant opportunity is imminent to write the song or the play etc. They are at a distinct disadvantage. They must attempt to turn on the rusted tap of creativity and craft in those moments rather than being able to simply step into the existing flow.
Being consistent in our endeavours will help us tap into the powerful reality of compounding. What we can learn depends on what we already know. As our abilities grow, the more able we are to learn. Our foundations get stronger, our knowledge widens and we are able to fully grasp new knowledge conceptually and practically, precisely because we have a better understanding to piggyback off of. We have more reference points and we become practised at learning. Consider this: If you were to reread the same book you read ten years ago, you would understand more this time around due to your larger knowledge base.
This dedication to being consistent will serve us well no matter our sphere of interest. Whether we are writers, musicians, sculptures or painters, a daily engagement with our craft will inexorably lead to positive results over time.