One of the ugliest sentences I’ve ever typed is…
“Be Consistent.”
It’s on my flippin whiteboard, as a motivational statement. (Hold on one sec…)
It was even written on my own whiteboard at one point.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Last Spring I started writing for 2 hours a day, almost exclusively on Medium. I racked up 120 posts there before I saw the patterns. The writing on the wall, if you will.
Medium is primarily writers who want to make money from writing. We were all chasing our tails, or each others, trying to say something meaningful, but also to be seen and to grow.
If I’m being honest, Substack feels the same way right now, but with a twist, that I’ll get to in a minute.
Substack feels like Medium because we end up with ‘the algorithm’ placing the content in front of us that we like, and the stuff we see and comment on is what we are aspiring to. Every time I like a Note from Sarah Fay, the algorithm says “MORE SARAH FOR JODY.”
The problem with consistent behavior is that it gets consistent results.
Wait. What?
Consistent Results are ONLY good, when you’re getting the results you want.
Be Consistent is short-sighted
An often said, always misattributed quote that I like is…
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Nobody Actually Said This
It’s great advice because it puts a goal in with the action, it’s 127% better than “Be Consistent.”
If you’re going to be the change, you need to know what the change looks like. Maybe you want the world to be nice to cats, start with your own cat kindness. Unfortunately, it’s so effective that it can be used for evil. If you want to see more hatred in the world, pick a group and hate them.
Being consistent is sort of the same way. I mean, it’s vague enough, it is also good advice, which is why it goes under the radar.
Being consistent will produce results.
Run consistently? - Build up endurance to run longer.
Write consistently? - More writing for people to read.
But what if you want to be a fast runner, or a talented storyteller?
You need to have a few additional points of consideration. You need to be mindful of your current and evolving state, and you need to be deliberate in your actions.
If you want to run faster, you need to sprint some in your running. You might also hit the gym and focus on legs.
If you want to be a talented storyteller, you need to be writing stories, you also need to be reading them. You also want to know how to create dialog effectively.
And… in either case, you might really want to consider getting a coach that focuses on that thing. Your mom will probably always like what you write, same with your friends. The guy always watering his lawn every time you run by may have some “keep it up” level of support, but he probably won’t point out that you’re heel striking.
You either need to be good at seeing your own weak spots, or you need to find someone who is willing to tell you about it, and that person should be someone you’re trying to impress.
Be Consistent. Nah.
Consistently do the thing you want to do, in the way you want to do it, with the pursue of achieving the result you want.
It’s a mouthful.
Consistency, without feedback, creates mediocre results
I was laid off at the end of 2023.
It took me 3 months of denying my desire to create something to improve the world before I started writing.
It took me 3 months after that of writing mediocre self-improvement tripe on a platform that was primarily people in the same chamber as me, it echoed a lot.
It took me 3 months, again, to ride out a funk, see that it wasn’t an easy path to success, and to break through the ‘guru advice’ wall.
The final 3 months of 2024 was me throwing spaghetti at a wall (metaphorically) to see what really did resonate for me.
I’m going to just call that year my sabbatical. Maybe it’s The Year I Got Pretty.
While it was NOT the year I produced anything to improve the world, it WAS the year of shifting limiting beliefs and becoming less helpless.
I didn’t have anyone observing me directly for the first 9 months, in the final 3 I found peers. I started reaching out to people, and I started seeing myself reflected in them while we all built each other up.
I learned a lot. I’m still learning.
Nobody else is you
We all move at our own pace. We all have our own learned experience.
I started on a different starting line than you, and my finish line looks different from yours.
The Jody in early 2024 was very skeptical of the profession “Coach” and never talked about community.
The Jody in early 2025 thinks that every goddamn thing is grounds for a community. That the best success comes from grassroots, and that “Coach” is still a sort of shitty title, but also sees that it can work, as can Mentor or Teacher.
Jody, right now, thinks that we’re all better off with someone else in our life, cheering us on, steering us towards our goals.
I think I learned to love people, to love humanity, even more in the past year than I had before (and I’ve always been “Team Human.") Both through seeing myself struggle, but through seeing others struggle, and lift each other up.
If there is one consistent thing we can all pursue, it’s supporting one another.
Doing as much of what we love as we can, purposefully pursuing what we really want, while supporting and loving those humans around us sounds like an excellent plan. Way to go, and dare I say, consistently good?
Jody, this post was an eye-opener! I never thought about consistency this, and it sure blew my mind. I did know that Practice & Feedback was the right approach to success, but this posts just expanded my perspective on that regard.