How many time have you thought about being consistent in something? How many time have you failed?

Consistency is not an ability you develop from one day to the other. Is something you learn day by day. Is an ability you gain by trusting yourself and your choices. Not every day it will be easy. Not every week you’ll be able to reach the goal you’ve set. But I can tell you that is ok, it is totally fine.

I’m trying to be consistent with this blog, with my everyday life (work and studying), with my hobbies and visits, and is the opposite of easy. My goal here is to help people with my experience and trying making you less lonely. I’m also trying to give you advice by what I’m learning from myself.

Most of the time I realise that I did not do what I wanted to. Most of the days I’m trying to do my best but not being able to succeeding in it. But each day I write something or think about something that will be a guide for the next one. For example, today I realised I’m doing a job that I don’t like. It is totally fine, my primary objective is being financially independent to trying to become a researcher. So, starting from tomorrow, I’ll try starting the day with something I really like, like doing sport or working at a current university project. It’ll put me in the right mindset to continue the day, and it’ll help me not to procrastinate in bed but to act. Some days ago I’ve realised that when I listen to music, I detach from the world. Is like an escape I created when I was little not to experience my real sensation but to hide and procrastinate. It is difficult to change a way of acting I had for 27 years, but being aware of it is the starting point. Daily it will get better and better. I feel it, and I’m trying to stay positive.

Today was a particular day. I had lots of difficulties because it is Monday, and I feel like Monday Blues sensations hits me very badly. I realised what I just told you, and it took me a lot of energy. But, in the meantime, I can state that I started a university project which is very near to my dream job. So, it gave me a bust of energy I hadn’t felt from a very long time. And, from one side I was happy, on the other side I’m trying to understanding how to manage these moments. Happiness is something I get overwhelmed by and I’m not so good at handling it. I think it is something I have to talk to my therapist about. But, having this awareness is the starting point to find a solution such that the next time it’ll be better, I will grow and I will learn how to manage it.

What I can state now is that each week I’m making a progress that gets me toward my goal. It is a slow transition but everything I learned helps me to moving forward and not looking backward.

I can tell to keep going. Not everyday will be easy. You may or may not reach every time the goal you have set but, if you are willing to have a grow mindset, it’ll help you to learn from what is not going as it is supposed to. You can either write, think or talk about it and develop a solution, a feasible one for yourself, such that, from the next time you’ll have this sensation, you can cope with it and learning from another difficult scenario. Remember that the more effort you make, the more you learn, the more you grow, the more you will feel good. You may feel tired or exhausted, but you’ll be satisfied because you have tried. And, believe me, there is no best sensation than this one, because you realise that you are acting in the real world, and you are no more following a spiral of intrusive thoughts.

Exercise.

In these days, I created an exercise that has helped me to rationalise those thoughts. I created a circle and in the middle I’ve placed a question: ‘What hinders my consistency?’. Then, I summarised in a few concepts what I’ve written in this blog. Visualising it allows me to process faster those thoughts and to brainstorm then whenever I feel I’m stuck. Hereafter you’ll find a picture of my exercise.

By telling me this question, I found out lots of habits I use not to cope with my problems but to avoid them. It makes me feel stuck and not happy about it. Keep in mind that not all the time Watching television, Avoid listening to music, Doing solo monologue are harmful for me. They are not constructive when, instead of dealing with the amount of work or the amount of study, I find an escape. So, be mindful to answer properly to this question and create a context that makes sense for you.

If you want to download the template and find your own obstacles, be my guest! I’ll let you here the link you can view (exercise).

Thank you for reading and hope you’ll have a nice remaining day.