The 3 Principles Of Consistency That Will Fuel You, Not Fail You.

Consistency, that word we all know matters but feel irritated that it needs to exist. Because doing something over and over can feel mind numbingly dull... unless there's a red hot motivation behind it and you know how to make it an unconscious habit, so much so that if you didn't do it, life would feel weird.

A great example is the fact that staying fit is easier than getting fit, but that requires consistency. Right now 39% of adults in the USA and 14% in the UK hold gym memberships but for each new member, another one quits because half of new members quit within the first 6 months (HRSA). This is consistency and the challenge of keeping it going having its wicked way, at its most irritating best.

As a girl who's running a marathon in six months, who's recently had surgery and three months out of any kind of exercise, I can confirm that my lack of consistency is making even putting my running trainers on a challenge. The weight I've gained from not being able to do much and the pain of 'starting' again is hard.

So, here's how I make it work:

1. It's got to have a real red hot motivation fuelling it,
2. It has to have autonomy,
3. It needs to be measurable.

Red Hot Motivation

Sticking with the marathon analogy my red hot motivation is easy, I'm celebrating being 10 years clear of breast cancer, it's a visible signal of my good health and vitality at the age of 52 with a15 year old daughter who needs to see her mum is well. I'd run a marathon every week if it reassured her (I'm never going to suggest that just in case). The reason this is so red hot is because it's as deep as they come.

A common issue with finding the red hot motivation is people don't dig deep enough into the fires of their soul to find the truth. A great example of a client I worked with recently who wanted to lose weight. She felt she'd tried everything, but no amount of dieting was shifting those last few pounds and it was driving her mad, she wanted to have a stress free summer being able to wear what she wanted without feeling self conscious.

When we got into the red hot fires of her true motivation, it was much deeper than she'd ever realised, as a professional and a mother, she was so panic stricken that any talk of dieting or losing weight would have negative connotations in her house that she'd been hiding it away. She wanted to be a strong role model, not someone who'd struggled with her weight. She felt it superficial because she was just thinking about it at the skin deep level not at the soul achingly hard level it actually was. As soon as we changed that mindset and the narrative about it being about health, strength and feeling good within her skin, she was able to open up the conversation and get her whole family supporting her.

It has to have autonomy.

You cannot be consistent if you're relying on someone else to get you there. It's too easy to rest on the excuse of it not being down to you... it always has to be down to you. I've talked my husband into running the marathon with me, but I can't expect him to join me on every training run. I have to have absolute autonomy in getting myself 26.2 miles ready.

If you spot that you fall off your consistency wagon when you feel let down by someone or something else, you've just found your red hot motivation; make sure whatever you're trying to achieve, you have 100% autonomy.

Its has to be measurable

You'd expect this to be a no brainier, but it's actually not. I speak to many people who plan a goal with no way of measuring its success. I'd always ask "how do you know when you've got there?"

My marathon example is pretty easy, I start at 2.2 miles and work my way up over 6 months. Right now it feels like I'll never get above 2.3 miles, but of course I will (because I'll be consistent about it). I also get to cross a finish line and get. anew medal as evidence.

If you start a weight loss journey with me, I rarely talk about weight, I dig into the emotions behind it all, whilst creating new tailor made health protocols and because we do this consistently, our focus is not on your waistline, but on your belief line but we do have specific points along the journey where jumping on the scales can work to measure progress, to see how far you've come. The point is, you have to measure your progress to understand yourself better so you can have fact to back up the days your jeans feel too tight.

So, in a nutshell, the 3 principles of staying consistent - have autonomous red hot motivation that can be measured, and add the magical 1% to keep it interesting.