How to increase consistency

Today on the podcast Coach Dr.Matthea talks about 4 ways to increase your consistency to make it easier to reach your goals.

For full show notes please go to www.TheWLCC.com/90

Transcript

0:26

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. It's Coach Dr. Matthea with you today. How's everybody doing? I am so excited to be back and today is one of those episodes that I feel like we can all just like play on repeat because it's gonna be about how to increase consistency and really then ending the year strong, but consistency. When I say that word, it's, it's very, it's almost like a dirty word because people think I'm never consistent. This is such a challenge. It's just like people think they need to be motivated all day long. When you hear consistency, people feel like it's just so outta reach. And I really wanna talk about a few aspects of what I see. People that are consistent. How they are making that happen. So we're gonna talk about four tips today, but I wanna start with this. I was listening to an episode of the podcast, the Health Investment, and there was a physician on there, I forget the exact name, I'll link it in the show notes. And he was really talking about how we don't ever really own our health every day. We have to make investments into it. And so I really love the example of, you can't say, Hey, I just had the most amazing walk ever. I walked 20 miles today and then I'm good for the year. Cuz I did all the walking that I thought I was gonna do this year. I did it and I'm good. It's like, no. Probably the best way that to, to consistently show up for yourself might be that we spread that out over the course of a year or whatever it looks like, but it's sort of not a one and done scenario. And so when we think about consist. That is really the thing that's gonna determine the results that you have. So the people that are having their blood sugar controlled and they're feeling great with how they're eating and how they're moving their body, things like that, they have figured out the consistency formula for them that works where they can keep up with it. So let's dig a little bit more into these four steps. So number one, for consistency, it's making the. Small enough baby steps. I cannot tell you how important this is. If you are not being consistent with whatever it is you've set, likely, it's a consistency problem. So that is the first thing I wanna tell you is, and whatever the goal, you might, you might tell me, cuz this is another common thing, you're like, well, I'm only asking myself to. Insert whatever it is. You think it's so small, but here's the thing, if it's not happening, it's too big. So what is a step even before that, that you can do? You know, I will hear about, someone that maybe they've already prepped the food and they're still not. Remembering to take it to work or things like that. But then when I really dig into it, the food that they've prepped is still in a big container in the fridge, and it's not actually pre-portioned and ready to go for the next day at work. So it's so interesting, because you are telling me. That, well, I should be able to be consistent. This should be so easy. It's like, no, you didn't set yourself up for the morning panic and actually being able to get it already being packed and in the lunchbox, in the fridge with a sticky note on the door. You did not prepare yourself, I guess, enough for what needed to happen. So it's like there, there needs to be no drama here. It's just data. It's not happening. How could I scale it back to make it a small goal literal. Baby steps on this. I cannot reiterate this enough. This is actually gonna increase your motivation because what's gonna happen is you're gonna actually be doing it. And so this starts to build up confidence and momentum, and it's really just a beautiful thing when this happens. All right. Number two is a super, super big one for consistency, being willing to plan room for error. So this means. that we're not doing seven day goals anymore. I remember I did a mastermind with Elizabeth Benton. She's the one that wrote the book Chasing Cupcakes and she really stressed in there. We don't do seven day goals and it really just like hit home and struck me the fact that. It might be unrealistic to say that seven days a week, I'm gonna do this thing. Now I wanna put a caveat out here. There might be some people listening that maybe you have a type of medical condition like type one diabetes where you truly do every single day. Have to check your blood sugar multiple times a day and you have to count the carbs because it's, again, it's life or death for you if you get the insulin wrong. Things like that. That's not the scenario I'm talking about. So yes, I get that. But there are other things when you electively are choosing how you're gonna move your body, how you are gonna eat, things like that. Seven day a week goals In the beginning, I do not find to be the most helpful because if you get sick or if you know childcare changes that day, whatever the scenario might be, whatever the monkey wrench is for you that day, if you have made a seven day goal, you're always gonna view yourself as having failed. And so how do we build in that error, that margin? Another example I like to give, if any of you are into, budgeting. I mean, I know with inflation right now, a lot of people are much more watching what's happening with their finances. And so if you've ever really actually tracked your finances, A lot of people will put a line item in there for incidentals because you don't know when a tire's gonna bust. You don't know when a, when you're gonna suddenly have a cavity that needs to get filled to the dentist. Right? And so it's like if you're sitting there and if that's an analogy that hits home for you, there's just this. This margin where you have no idea what's gonna happen. A lot of people with running a business like how me and Carrie run it, there's a little emergency fund sitting there. You don't know if you know suddenly something's gonna change overnight. Maybe a vendor is gonna change their price and you didn't plan on it. And so you don't want the whole apple cart to get upset every single time that something happens. So why is it that in business and with our own personal finances and so many other areas, You might have a backup childcare plan. I know for me, I'm, I'm paranoid if I wanna not be interrupted with work literally 24 7 by childcare disturbances, I need to have multiple backup plans. I mean, I literally, it's like this person, then that person, then that person. It's not even family that I'm calling on, but why is it that in all these other areas, we allow for that and we plan for that and we think about it, but in this area we don't. So I just wanna put in there like number two, be willing to plan for some room for. I put in there for error for there being some breathing space, however you want to put that, but really allowing for that. And then number three that I put here is allowing for there to be imperfection. Now that might sound like the same as number two, but here's what I mean by that. Letting go of this all or nothing thinking. We are not robots. So let me give you an example. You might have planned something super realistic, maybe. Okay, three days a week for five minutes, I'm gonna go on a walk. And it, you might, you might say, this is really realistic for me. I think I can be consistent with that, all of it. But then what ends up happening is you go out on these walks and maybe the weather's too cold, and so you head back. do you think that that's a consistency problem or just that it was a human day where it was maybe below zero and you just decided not worth it today? So this is the part where we can't allow all or nothing thinking to take over. You know that in that moment, you made the best decision. This is not a consistency problem for you. This is called being a human and you have a rational brain and you're doing. So we need to, we need to keep that in mind with consistency, that there are things that are gonna pop up. I'm gonna give you another example. Illness. This is such a big one, that people will get sick and then they're not eating on the same plans that they normally do. And then all that their brain is doing is telling them that they're not gonna be able to get back on the wagon and all these kind of things. And I wanna say, this is not a consistency problem. This is not you failing. This is you being sick and needing your body to have some time to recover. So it's like we need to allow for that. Not being so in the all or nothing. Now here's the problem, and this is what I wanna point out to you. Why, why it's a problem. Our brain wants to compartmentalize. So everything is either good or bad or either on track or we're not. So it's a skill to start to learn it, to start to live in the middle with this. To start to realize, no, no, this is an exception. This is what I normally do. I have made it very realistic to really start to consistently remind ourselves of that. Okay. And then the last thing that I put on here for consistency, it's really. Identifying your thoughts or motivations, things that that replenish or that keep your consistency strong. So let me give you examples here. A lot of people will notice the things that they're most consistent about they love, or in some way it replenishes them. So I'm gonna give you an example, Human connection. You might notice that it's so much easier for you to take that walk if your friend, a few times a week goes with you. If you meet up with a group to do it, like there's like walking clubs and things like that. So you might notice if I'm walking with maybe my significant other, whatever it is, that that human connection, it makes it easier. There's also that accountability aspect, right? Or you might notice. It's easier for me to journal if I'm, journaling on topics that I enjoy. Another area that really might help replenish as you're sort of working on these things is if there are connections to things that really mean significant things in your life. So for example, a religious, a spiritual, a higher calling that links to it. A lot of what I will hear from the religious community is really viewing your body as, as a sacred vessel that you're taking care of. Not taking this for granted. And so it it, the consistency aspect where that comes in. It's no longer just this like mechanical thing when I'm going and exercising. It's really, I'm doing this movement because I'm taking care of this sacred vessel. And so really tying in when you are making these, these small goals and when you're making these things to work toward and deciding how you're gonna be consistent, does it align with your other values? Does it align with connecting with your family? Does it align with connecting with your spiritual beliefs? Do you see how powerful that is when it starts to get beyond just, this is some mechanical robot thing that I'm doing so that my body looks a certain way, we need to tie it into the rest of your identity? That's when it really gets juicy and it sticks because it's like, I can't not do these things because then I'm literally going against who I am and who I wanna be. It becomes so much more powerful. All right, so just to kind of reiterate on those, if we wanna increase consistency, usually globally, I see it as a problem of scale. So we're trying to do things that are too big all at once, and then we end up being frustrated. So, number one, can we make the goal small enough? Can we really break it down to some baby steps? It allows us to get to be successful, to get to enjoy these things. It's amazing, right? When we can achieve these smaller things, we feel so much better. Then when we set big goals and can't reach them, and then number two, being willing to kind of plan for that flexibility, that error, realizing that things like that are gonna pop up. Number three, allowing for imperfection. Letting go of this all or nothing, that we are human. Things are going to change and evolve and different scenarios are gonna pop up and that we don't need to compartmentalize everything as good or bad. We can still be on track. You know, it's like you get to define, let's say you get sick one week. I guess I'm on a, I'm on a walking theme this episode, So let's say that you are not doing your walking that week. That doesn't mean that somehow now you're not a walker, right? It's like, no, you got sick and it was the most loving thing to not make yourself more short of breath when maybe you're coughing up a bunch of junk and your sinuses are all blocked up. Maybe that's the most loving thing not to do that that week. And so you are still a walker. That is still your identity. You get to pick it up the next week, that might be the most loving thing. And then number four, really starting to connect these things that you're doing with the things that really matter about your identity, your core beliefs, who you are. Really tying it all together, cuz consistency gets easier when it's for a higher purpose that we're doing things. And most of us, if you're having a hard time connecting with that, you might tell me, well Matea. I'm not particularly religious. I don't have a family that I'm close to. I'm single. I don't care what your scenario is. There is something that is deep down really motivating you and the best way to ch to to start to parse this out is to ask yourself why five times? So you say, you know, Why do I wanna take this walk daily? And then you just keep going until you really get down to the juicy, meaty reasons that you actually wanna be consistent and get that result. All right. I love talking to you guys today. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Again, the time when this is coming out. Let's say that you're hearing all of this and you want to start to really take action on this. You wanna apply all this. You want a. Guided intensive experience. Come join us for the six week reset. It's starting in January of 2023. More information on this is gonna be in the show notes.