Success in homeschooling, weight loss, not yelling, disciplining your children, and praying all require consistency. Becoming consistent, however, can prove very daunting. I'm pretty consistent in a lot of areas, but one that I wasn't was in the discipline of my children. I would be too tired sometimes to put forth that much effort. Other times I'd try a new style of discipline, but only once a day instead of every time. If there's one place that consistency helps, it's definitely in discipline.
If you've been struggling with consistency in any area of your life, here's 5 concrete actions that you can take to improve your chance of success.
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Becoming Consistent Requires Action
Begin Your Day with a Morning Routine
Many people claim to not be morning people. I probably still am not a morning person, but I've learned, thanks to having kids, that getting up at a specific time and doing the same thing every morning really does help. For starters, it ensures that I'm dressed and showered. We've also been going to daily Mass for years, so getting up early means we can get there on time. It also helps my kids because it means that I'm waking them up at the same time every day. This way we're all dressed and ready to go to Mass together.
I can't stress this enough: getting up at the same time every day will start your day off on the right foot and will get you on the road to consistency.
Don't believe me, ask Hal. He's written several books about it!
Ignore How You Feel About It
Which brings me to the next action you can take. Ignore your feelings about the required process you've put in place. We'll talk more about the process in a minute. In the meantime, when you hear that voice in your head saying, "I don't want to" or "I'm too tired" or any other excuse you can imagine, ignore it. Suck it up and realize that the devil, the world and the flesh are going to work against you becoming consistent.
I understand that occasionally you will be sleep deprived (maybe for a long time, I get it), or sick, etc. If that's the case, see Action #4.
But, if you are just making up excuses because you aren't feeling particularly motivated, just go ahead take that first step towards your goal. Sometimes just getting yourself moving is enough to conquer your feelings. Don't let that voice in your head talk you out of it.
Becoming Consistent is Easier When you Have a Schedule and/or a Process
Yep, here I go again. Having a schedule can make the world of difference in how consistent you become. If I didn't really believe that, I wouldn't be talking about it all the time.
If you want to be more consistent in your homeschooling, having a schedule of when you are going to do it will be invaluable towards reaching that goal. Instead of scheduling appointments during your homeschooling time, you'll know to schedule them some other time.
Want to get in shape? Schedule a time in your day to do that.
Is eating healthier your goal? Put time to cook dinner at home in your schedule.
I think you get the picture.
Becoming consistent in some areas requires more of a process than a schedule. Since I lacked consistency in disciplining the kids, what I needed was a process to follow that I actually stuck with every time for more than a week!
Outline the process that you will need on paper so that you can see exactly what it is you have to do. Post that process where you'll see it often and then follow it!
Look at the Big Picture
What I mean here is, don't let one bad day where you lacked consistency keep you from getting back on the horse. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at us right when we're getting in the groove. It sucks, I know. The important part is to get right back up and begin again.
In other words, cut yourself some slack when you aren't consistent. Keep your eye on the bigger picture. Look at the whole month, for example. Were you consistent for most of the month? If so, focus on that.
If you weren't, then you need to look back at your schedule/process. What needs to change in order to make it easier to keep up with? If you've just had a month of curve balls, know that it will pass. When it does, begin again and keep following your plan.
Don't Tackle More Than One Thing
How many of you get so enthusiastic that you try to take on more than one thing at a time? Raise your hand if you're like me!
I'm going to lose weight and get in shape while I start a new morning routine and add in an hour of prayer per day.
Yikes. What is the likelihood of becoming consistent in one of those let alone all of them? Pick one at a time and work on it till you've met your goal and become consistent. Some things will go faster and easier than others. Pick the thing you think will be the easiest for you so that you can get some immediate success. Once you're consistent in one area, move on to the next. Before long, you'll have consistency in many areas of your life.
Don't fret if it takes a long time for you to master consistency in one area or another. I mean, I don't think I ever really mastered it where discipline was concerned and now my kids are mostly grown. Oh well, maybe I'll master it with my future grandkids. LOL. Who am I kidding? Grandmas don't have to be masters at discipline, right?