(Originally published on 30/04/2020)
Do you ever wonder why we run into the struggle of staying consistent with keeping up the good habits or the resolutions we set out at the start of each year? Well, I do and I find it increasingly frustrating every time I catch myself failing to keep up a good habit.
I believe part of it has to do with the fact that sometimes we lose sight of our goal, whether it is reading 15 books or losing 10 kg this year, which allows our laziness to take over and fall out completely.
For instance, I have been trying to gain weight for a few years with no visible result. I’ve maintained a body weight of 60 kg for well over 2 years now. I have been eating healthy and exercising every day. Overtime, I got frustrated to a point where I was convinced that I could never go past this weight limit. However, I realized that I inadvertently built this false belief and a bubble to trap myself in by telling everyone around me that it was impossible for me to gain weight.
Upon coming to terms with my own delusion, I made a promise to myself to put on 5 kg by the end of the “circuit breaker”. (For those of you that live outside of Singapore, “circuit breaker” is a euphemism for a “lock down” Singapore government came up with to prevent its citizens from going haywire.)
After consuming countless dietary experts’ advice on YouTube, I started out by shoving my face with foods that are packed with carbs and proteins. I followed it up with a 20-minute workout routine every evening. Hit me up if you want a copy of my workout.
However, I found out that the discipline and effort you put into your diet and your workout routine does not show for a long time. It took me a whole month of healthy eating and workout to gain 2 kg! That was really discouraging for me which really made me understand how it would turn most people away from achieving the goal they envisioned at the start. I had to remind myself that even though the growth is minuscule, and I will eventually get to the body weight I wanted. It just takes time to show results. However, staying focused on our final goal will allow us to stay consistent.
On a separate note, I have also been having difficulty with writing consistently as you can probably tell from a lack of blog post for this week. I think part of it comes from the pressure I put myself under.
When I started this blog, I made a commitment to write and post something related to the books I have read every week. It started out relatively easy as I had a few notes written on the earlier topics a while back. So, I always had something to start off on. However, as we all know words don’t write themselves. It takes some levels of mental and physical discipline to sit down and concentrate to flush out the idea you have into something presentable.
On top of that, I noticed myself worrying about the word count. I know it sounds silly to be caught up with something so trivial. Which is why I have been trying to convince myself to pay attention to the quality rather than quantity. I do hope that my writing has improved somewhat since I started. You can let me know in the comments below.
In short, having this self-imposed rule lifted allows me to focus on delivering on my own promise of writing weekly without putting unnecessary mental stress on myself. I am writing for fun anyway eh!
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish. For me it was twofold, to gain weight by eating well and working out. The other is to get better at writing while having fun. Regardless of how hard it may seem at times; we have to keep in mind that the key to achieving great things in life is by staying consistent with our goals.
I still very much enjoy writing down my ideas and opinions to share with the world. I do hope you enjoy reading it just as much.
Stay safe, stay consistent and thank you for reading.
Jonathan Fort 