How can we become more consistent?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
6.26 6.26 6.26 6.26 6.26 Consistency in intention and there can be consistency in action.
So consistency in action is going to take time. If say somebody has been an alcoholic and they want to now recover, they want to give up their alcohol. Now the habit is there, the habit has its momentum.
It’s not that, it’s very rare that if we had a particular habit, we decide today and tomorrow I will give up. Some people might be able to do it and in some habits it may work. Some habits we just go cold turkey and give up.
But in most habits there will be relapses. So if we define consistency as consistency in action, in terms of sticking to our resolution all the time, it’s difficult for any of us to be consistent. But what happens sometimes for others, the inability to be consistent in action, that makes us give up our intentions.
I can’t do this. So if say I have made a resolution, everyday I want to sleep early, wake early so that I can have more regulated life. Then we may do it for 7 days and the 8th day we are not able to do it.
And our mind obsesses on the 8th day. See, you couldn’t do it for your failures. But success, especially in terms of self-transformation, it is not a destination.
It is a direction. Success is not a goal that we achieve and it’s over. It’s a direction which we keep going.
So instead of thinking that the 8th day I failed, in 7 days I succeeded. And that is a success. So it’s like 7 days I went in the right direction, 8th day I didn’t go.
But it doesn’t matter, 9th day I can again go. So with consistency, we need to redefine consistency. It is not necessarily arriving at a particular destination.
Consistency is moving in a particular direction. Sometimes we may move faster, sometimes we may move slower. Sometimes we may even take a U-turn.
But after we take a U-turn, then again take another U-turn. And then keep moving forward. So if we just maintain consistency and intention, this is what I want to do.
Then slowly the consistency in action will come. So even if we can’t be consistent, we can be resilient. Resilient means I fall down, but I get up again.
I try something, I fail, I get up again. And to be able to do that, we need to redefine success. Success is not just sticking to a particular level or getting up to a particular place.
It is moving in the right direction. So that weak definition of success internally, in terms of consistency of intention, that helps. And secondly, having some supportive association, a supportive environment is vital.
If we are trying to do something, say I want to wake up in the morning. And everybody with whom I am staying, they sleep late and they wake up late. So my alarm may ring, I’ll wake up, look at everyone is sleeping, I’ll go to sleep.
So then I may need to create a supportive environment. So maybe I have some friend who also wants to wake up and then we help each other wake up. To understand why this is essential, let’s take the opposite example.
If somebody is an alcoholic and their house is next to a bar, then how probable is it that they will be able to give up alcohol? They may give it up for a few days, but we all in our resolutions have weak moments. And if in the weak moment, the opportunity for relapse is very easily available, we relapse. So creating an external supportive situation is also important.
Even if there is one friend who also wants to do something, which we want to do, or at least they are supportive of what we want to do, then they can be either our partner in doing the same thing or if they don’t have the problem and we only have the problem, then if they can’t be our partner, then they can be our accountability partner. Accountability partner means we tell them, I’m trying to do this and maybe once a week we meet with them. It is a little embarrassing for us to tell like that.
So we need to find a trustworthy friend, not a friend who is going to tell our problems to the whole world. But if you can find someone like that, then having some external support, even if just, you know, in this week I did this, this, this. Having someone to tell that to, that gives us a spur.
So you’re having this internal redefinition of success and creating an external support structure in terms of either situation or association that can help us to be consistent in intention and translate that consistency into action gradually.