187: 3 Secrets To Staying Consistent

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 187.

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife, and mom of four.  Each week, my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

 

How to be more consistent  0:49  

Hey, Hey, Hey, welcome back to another episode of Biceps after Babies Radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke. And we have such a good topic today. One that, I think, is going to be very valuable for you. Really, no matter what phase you're in, consistency is a, I don't know, never ending quest. I feel like on some level of developing that drive, and that discipline to be able to be consistent in whatever it is that we put our minds to. So many of us, and I don't know if you're anything like me, but we have a little bit of shiny object syndrome where things are really exciting to us when they're new. And we get really motivated and pumped up and they're super fun when it's new and shiny. And as we kind of settle into things, that newness wears off, that excitement wears off. And sometimes, that consistency with it wears off and we're on to the next thing. So, I don't know if that resonates with you, but I know that there are some listeners that will very much identify with jumping from thing-to-thing and really struggling with buckling down, again, that discipline of just being consistent with the same thing day-after-day, time-after-time, year-after-year, and really turning what we are doing into habits. Because at the very core level, that's really what we're doing when we're on a fitness journey. And we're making these changes, and we're implementing new things, and we're eating new ways, and we're exercising in different ways. Those changes are important.But what is really going to make the difference in the long-term is if those changes stick. And so often, many of you experience where you can make those changes for a little while, but then they don't stick for some reason. And so, I'm going to help you in this episode to get to the bottom of why you struggle, and why they don't tend to stick, and what we can be doing differently, how can we approach this differently, how can we think about it differently that will make consistency a natural byproduct for you. But make it something not that you have to muscle through or willpower your way through, but it makes it a natural byproduct of the person that you are becoming. So, if you struggle with consistency in any area of life, keep listening because this episode is going to be super valuable for you. 

 

#IloveMeChallenge 3:12  

But before we dive into that topic, I have something really exciting that I want to share with you. The phrase, “You have to love yourself first,” sounds nice, but how the heck do you get there? You've probably heard of affirmations, positive self-talk, maybe even read some self-help books, and those are all great. But when it comes to applying these concepts to your daily life, how do you do it? How do you get yourself to believe those affirmations? If I asked you to look in the mirror right now and say, “I love you to the person staring back at you,” could you do it? And not only could you do it, could you mean it? I daresay, most women would have at least a little resistance to verbally acknowledging themselves and their love for their body. And that's why I created the #IloveMeChallenge. A free 14-day journey to help you increase your self-love, so that you can confidently say, “What you think of me doesn't matter because I love me.” Hearing that part of you may think, “Well, that's a really nice sentiment, Amber, but how can I love myself when there's so much that still needs to be changed when I lose my motivation to hit my goals if I am happy in my current reality?” Spoiler alert, it doesn't work that way. Think about it. How long have you been beating yourself up, and withholding love from yourself hoping that it would motivate change? If that strategy was going to work, it would have worked by now. The truth, the more you beat yourself up, the less motivation you have to change. It's just like a child who will perform much better in their soccer game If you cheer them on rather than telling them you are withholding any applause or any love for them until after they won the game. What's between your ears matters. Your mindset is the determining factor for success. If you can love yourself now, you will be unstoppable. And reaching your goals will be easier. So, are you up for the challenge? If so, head to bicepsafterbabies.com/iloveme, all one word. And for two weeks starting February 13, so, just in time for Valentine's Day, you'll receive one text message a day. These text messages will be short but powerful. There'll be mixes of quotes and action items and things to think about to be able to grow in your self-love. This is entirely free. So, if you're in, head to bicepsafterbabies.com/iloveme, and sign up for our free 14-day text message challenge. That's bicepsafterbabies.com/iloveme. 

 

Take time to review and rate the podcast on iTunes  5:44  

And last, before we jump into this topic about how to be more consistent, If you are loving Biceps after Babies Radio, will you take a moment and leave a rating and review on iTunes? I know it takes time, but it really does help the podcast get seen by more people. And it helps the algorithm– we all know the algorithm. It's like you're always trying to beat the algorithm, whether it's Instagram or Facebook or podcasts on iTunes. We're all trying to beat the algorithm. So, it really does help if you are enjoying the content. It's free. I put it out there for people to have free access to, and it would mean the world to me if you would take a few minutes of your time and just leave a rating and review on iTunes. 

 

Struggling with consistency  6:27  

Okay, so, let's dive into this topic about consistency, and I have three specific ways to improve your consistency. If this is something that you struggle with in your fitness journey, yes, of course, or in other areas of your life, you're going to find that the things that I'm going to be talking about are going to be very applicable, whether it's just in your fitness journey, or in reading your scriptures, or going to the gym. I guess that's fitness, or dating your spouse, whatever it may be, all those other areas of your life that are important as well as your fitness journey. So, let's set up the problem. What often happens? We get excited, we get motivated, we get started with something, we make a change, right? Change to what we were doing. We all know what got you here, won't get you there. If you want a new result, that means you have to do something different. So, in order to do that, we make a change in our life, and we implement something different in our life. And usually, we are very excited and do very well with that change that we're making at the beginning. And then something happens over time where we fall off the wagon. And it's not new and shiny anymore. And it's not exciting. And we really struggle falling off the wagon, getting back on, falling off the wagon again. And we can get into this process of wondering why we just can't stick to something because on some level, it's something we want to do. Most of us have these desires. We want to do these things. But for some reason, we just don't consistently do them. So, what the heck is going on? And what can you do to start to combat this experience in the cycle that so many of my clients start to see.

 

Tip no. 1: Get curious about it 8:13  

So, I have three tips today that I'm going to share that are going to help you, and let's start with tip number one. Tip number one is to start to get curious about it and to gather as much data as possible about how this is manifesting in your life. I will say for most people, lack of consistency isn't about lack of knowledge. It isn't about that you need to learn more about why this change is important. For example, if you're somebody who maybe is a diabetic, and you need to maintain your insulin levels between a certain level and only eat a certain amount of carbs in order to keep your body healthy, and you had those doctor's recommendations, and yet, you struggled to make that happen and sometimes, you overeat, and you overeat on carbs, or you're not checking your glucose levels. Typically, if that's the case, and you're struggling with that consistency, it isn't because you don't understand why it's important. And so, I think just calling this out and recognizing for a lot of women, we keep ourselves stuck thinking that the solution to consistency is to just learn more. “If I just understood more about this topic, if I learned just a little bit more about it, If I took another class or another lesson, then maybe it would finally click and it would be different for me.” And I just want you to recognize that for most people, if you can already list off the reasons the benefits of the change that you're trying to make why you're doing it and the benefit of it, if you can list that off, then learning more about said topic is not usually going to be the tipping point. It's not usually going to be the thing that's going to close that gap between saying, “I want to do this consistently and then actually executing on that. 

 

Mental blocks that cause us to self- sabotage 10:11  

So, if that's not the case, it's not education that's standing in our way. What is it that stands in our way between saying, “I want to do this and then consistently actually executing on that.”? And the answer is that oftentimes, there are mental blocks. We have these mental blocks, and they can manifest in different ways and there's different types of mental blocks. But we have these mental blocks that cause us to self- sabotage. That causes us to almost speak out of both sides of our mouth. On one side, we're saying, “I would like this result and this outcome. Yes, please. And I know that I need to do X,Y, and Z, and so, that's what I'm gonna do,” And that's what we see out of one side of our mouth. And then on the other side of our mouth, “We know what we need to do to get that result, but then, we don't actually do it.” And then we're like, “What am I doing? I know that I need to track my macros, but why don't I consistently implement that?” And the reason is because there's some sort of mental block that is preventing you from consistently applying the knowledge that you have gained. And so, what often happens is that we get really frustrated with this, and upset with ourselves, and mad at ourselves when we fall off the wagon, when we stop tracking, when we stop going to the gym, when we keep staying up late at night, when we want to go to– we've made a commitment to going to sleep earlier. And we get really frustrated and mad at ourselves. And start to beat ourselves up. 

 

Turn frustration to fascination  11:40

And this is where I think it's so helpful to start to understand. I love this quote from– I heard it from Tony Robbins. I don't know if he's the first one who said it, but he has this quote that says, “Turn frustration into fascination.” When you stay in that frustrated, blamey, angry mode, you don't see solutions. You don't see the bigger picture. It's almost like when we get frustrated, and we get angry, we get tunnel vision. And we stop seeing the bigger, wider picture. And we don't have a solution because we're so close to this situation that we can't see anything outside of it. So, what does this mean for our journey? It means when you start to notice that you are saying, “I want to do something,” and then you aren't consistently doing it, that instead of getting mad at yourself or sort of beating yourself up or getting frustrated about it, we can start to get curious about it and say, “Huh, that's super interesting. I say that I want to go to bed and not look at my phone while I'm laying in bed. And I set a goal to do that. But yet, here I am three weeks later, and I'm sitting in my bed, and I'm scrolling through Instagram. So, it's interesting that I say that I want to not scroll in bed. And yet, here I am three weeks later doing that. That's super curious. Let's investigate that a little bit more.“ That perspective of curiosity or fascination is going to serve you so much more than the tunnel vision that occurs from just getting mad and frustrated and angry with yourself. And so how can we get more curious about this experience and what's going on? Because when we can get curious about it, and when we can dive a little bit deeper, we can figure out what's actually going on. 

 

Address the root cause of the problem  13:25

So, the problem is a lot of people try to solve consistency by addressing the actual context in which they see that lack of consistency. So, what I mean is, we're going to take that example again of somebody sitting in bed and scrolling through Instagram and saying, “I want to have a new sleep routine. I want to not have my phone in bed and that's my goal. That's my intention. That's what I want to have happen. And then when they fall off the wagon, they look at that situation and say, “Oh, well, the problem is that I started looking at my phone in bed. So, that's the problem. I need to address this. I need to address the problem that I'm sitting in my bed scrolling. And so how can I address this problem?” right? That's addressing the surface level problem. In reality, not recognizing that isn't the actual problem, It is a symptom of the problem. And if you just address the symptom, the underlying root cause of the problem isn't going to actually change. So, it's like if you have a headache. A headache becomes a symptom. Okay, we got to figure out where the headache is coming from because if you just address the headache, and you just say, “Oh, you have a headache?” and, “Here, take this Advil and it's going to make you feel a little bit better,” that's great. It may cover up the symptom. But if the person has a brain tumor, or they are dehydrated, or something else is going on, just covering up that symptom doesn't actually solve the root problem. And it's the same way when we're talking about consistency. If you are noticing a lack of consistency in an area of your life, you cannot solve that by focusing on that one instance of where that was manifested because that is a symptom. It's not the actual problem. What the actual problem is underlying. There's a mental block behind there. There's something that's keeping you from executing that on a consistent basis and it isn't the actual instance. That's not where the fixing happens. The fixing doesn't happen in the actual context in which you see it. It's what's underlying that. And so how do we get there? How do we figure out what the actual root cause is? The best way to do that is to investigate. And the best way to investigate is to ask questions. 

 

Questions are the answer  15:00  

So, any of you guys who have been coached by me inside of macros 101, or on free coaching Fridays, or even listening here to the podcast, you know that I believe questions are the answer. Questions are the way that we dive deep into what we're thinking and what's behind our actions and behind the things that we are doing and saying, and when we can get down to those, those thoughts and those beliefs and those that level, that's where the actual solutions live. And so, obviously, I'm not sitting here, and I can't coach you through your specific instance of inconsistency, but what I can do is give you some really powerful questions that you can start to ask yourself. And if you are really committed to not just listening to this podcast, and nodding your head and saying, “That sounds really great, Amber. Those are some really great questions,” but if you're actually committed to applying this to your life, then you're not going to just sit here and listen to these questions. But you're going to actually take the time to write these questions out and actually journal on these questions. Actually, answer these questions for yourself. If you want to make a difference, if you want to have a change, it's that next step of not just listening to me, but actually taking the time writing these questions out and then journaling on them. 

 

Four questions to ask yourself about consistency  17:00 

So, here's the four questions that I would have you ask yourself, or if I was coaching you, that I would probably ask you and we dive in together. But this will be the next best thing. The first question is how do you know that you aren't consistent? You're saying that you are struggling with consistency. How do you know that that's a struggle for you? And then question number two is kind of the flip side of that. How will you know when you are consistent? And what we're looking at with these two questions is that your definition of consistency is flushing out. 

 

Definition of consistency  17:34

When I say consistency, that means something to you. And it can mean something totally different to your friends sitting next to you listening to this. And it can mean something totally different for me. So, we think that words have a universal definition. But in fact, they really don't. Yes, you can go look up the word consistency in the dictionary. However, consistency means something slightly different to every single person. And one person can be in a situation like, “Oh, I'm not consistent,” and another person can mean that same situation and be like, “I'm totally consistent,” and so, these questions are kind of flushing out. What is your definition of consistency? What are we using as the metric to which you are comparing yourself?

 

Four questions to ask yourself about consistency (cont.)  18:18  

Okay, question number three, what specifically prevents you from consistency? And a follow-up question to that is, what do you say to yourself when you make that choice? You make that choice to sit in bed and scroll through Instagram, you make that choice to stop tracking, you make that choice to skip the gym today. What is preventing you from that consistency? What's preventing you from making that choice that you said three weeks ago that you wanted to make? And the more that you can get clear on what's actually going on inside your head, how you're speaking to yourself, how you're rationalizing, we don't make choices that we don't think that we don't rationalize. We don't say, “Oh, this is a terrible decision. I'm going to make it anyway.” No, no, that's not how our brain works. Our brain works by rationalizing. So, we never make what we would consider a terrible decision. We make a decision. And we always have a rationalized reason behind it and excuses. Something that we've walked ourselves through of why this is okay this time, or why this is different, or whatever, but we always have a reason and the more you can get clear on what that reason is and what you're coming up with, the more we can work through how we can be more consistent the future. Again, we're trying to get down to the root cause. This is not about you needing to willpower harder, or about you just saying, “Well, I just need to be better about not having my phone in bed. That's it. I made a mistake, and I'm gonna get back on the wagon, and I just need to not do it in the future.” If you've ever said that to yourself, and I'm sitting here raising my hand, because I've tried that and, news flash, It doesn't ever work. If my only strategy to do something different in the future is, “Well, I'm just going to do it differently in the future,” that never works, or it never works for me. And my guess is that it never works for you as well. We cannot just willpower ourselves to change. Okay, last question you can journal on. Has there ever been a time in your life that you were consistent? Maybe not in this specific context. But has there been a time in your life you've been consistent with something? What was different about that situation? So, maybe you've consistently shown up at your work. Maybe you've consistently made dinner for your kids. Whatever it is, look at other contexts in your life of instances where you don't struggle with consistency. Where consistency is natural, normal, and easy. What is different about those situations than this current situation that you're struggling with?

 

Journaling answers to the questions brings some clarity to the situation of what's actually going on in your consistency 21:02 

Now, if you're really committed to actually seeing a difference in your consistency, hopefully, you didn't just listen to me ask those questions, but you actually wrote them down, and you actually did some journaling, and you flushed out some ideas and some thoughts that came up when I asked those questions. Now, of course, it would be amazing if I could sit there and coach you through your answers and your responses, but you'll find that even just asking yourself those questions and journaling and out, some answers will come. Some clarity will come and yeah, I wish I could coach every single one of you through whatever you wrote down, and that's what we do inside of macros 101. So, if that's what you want, get on the waitlist for macros 101. But just journaling them out is going to bring some clarity to the situation of what's actually going on. And PS, this is why not just hiring a coach because you think that they're really good at macros, or because you think that they're really good at working out or because their body looks a certain way, please don't hire coaches based off of that. Because it's not the lack of education that is missing for most people. It is this inner work. It is what is happening between your ears, it is the things that you are telling yourself, it is the mental blocks that you have. And if your coach isn't trained to help you work through those things, you'll get into the cycle of them saying, “Do this. You're not doing it,” and then, being like, “What the heck? Just do it,” and then, you try it again and fail again and then, be like, “What the heck? Just do it.” And the cycle starts to perpetuate, or not actually ever solving the underlying problem. We've gotta get down to what is actually keeping you stuck. And what is actually keeping you stuck is not the very thing that you think is keeping you stuck at something deeper. Alright, so, tip number one was to get curious about it, and to gather as much data as possible about the experience where you're struggling with consistency. 

 

Tip no. 2: Re-define consistency  22:54  

Tip number two is to re-define consistency and shrink the change. And one of the questions that I asked you in the last tip was about your definition of consistency. What are you using as your yardstick? Is your definition of consistency akin to your definition of perfection? I see that a lot. Where people have this definition. This unachievable definition of consistency that is really basically the same thing as perfection or somewhat close to this idea of perfection. And then they struggle, and they get frustrated that they never ever reached that level. And it's easy to see why when you have set your standard as only perfection, we all know that none of us can be perfect 100% of the time. It's literally impossible for us to be perfect. So, you're essentially setting yourself up to fail because you've created the standard that is unachievable. And even if you have not created a standard of perfection, your definition of consistency also still might be too unachievable for you at this beginning stage of your journey. So, you may be sitting there thinking, “Well, Amber, I'm not requiring perfection of myself. I have some leeway. But I'm even with that leeway. I'm still not hitting it. I'm still not doing it,” and I would say back that just because you maybe you haven't set your standard as perfection, you still might have your standard set as too drastic of a change. Too big of a leap. 

 

Relating a visual of rungs of the ladder to the expectations we give to ourselves 24:35  

There's a graphic or a visual that I love. And it is two ladders side-by-side. And the ladder on the left. The rungs start at the very bottom and they are very narrowly spaced in between and there is an image of a silhouette of a person who is halfway up that ladder. They are climbing each of the rungs of the ladder. And then on the right, there is a second ladder and the rungs of this ladder are much, much further apart. And the first rung is already fairly high. And there is a silhouette of a person who is standing at the base of that ladder reaching up trying to reach that first rung. And they just can't even get up to the first rung on the ladder. And I love this visual because it's often what we do ourselves. We set these expectations. We set this idea of this is the way it is going to be and this is the next step. And this is the change that I need to make in my life. And we have created too big of a jump. Our brain likes familiarity. Our brain likes what we know. And when we try to jump way too far out of that comfort zone, our brain fights back and doesn't make that big change. I had an experience with one of my employees recently where we had this realization, and we preach growth. We preach being uncomfortable in our business. We preached this idea that if you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't growing. And so discomfort is part of the job, it's part of growth, it's part of what we believe in as the culture of our company. And I had this conversation with one of our employees that we realized she had taken that so to heart that she had pushed way too far out of her comfort zone. And it was causing a lot of problems. And so there is this balance between wanting to be outside of your comfort zone because that's where change happens. And that's where growth happens. And what got you here, won't get you there. Without pushing yourself so far out of your comfort zone that your brain freaks out, and doesn't let you do any of the things.

 

Benefits of redefining consistency  24:34  

So, what is your definition of consistency? And at that second question I had you respond, “How will I know when I'm consistent?” helps you to define what that definition of consistency has been for you in the past, and why you are saying, “I'm not consistent right now.” And then what we can do from that is we can re define what consistency means. We can create a new definition that is more supportive of you moving in the direction that you want to go. Now, look, you may not reach your original definition of consistency in one leap on the ladder. You may need to start with some smaller rungs to be able to start climbing up towards that consistency to be able to keep your brain from freaking out that you're making too big of a change. And so that can look like starting with a new definition of what consistency means to you. So, let me give you a really tangible example of what this can look like. Oftentimes, when I hear people say, “I'm not being consistent,” and I dive a little bit deeper into what that actually means, they'll say something like, “Well, I'm only hitting my macros three days a week,” and I dive a little bit deeper, and they're like, “I want to be hitting my macros, I don't know, six days a week. To me, six out of seven days a week, that would be consistent, but I'm not doing that now. I'm only hitting it three days a week.” And so then we can have this conversation about okay, great. Cool. We're trying to jump from three to seven days. Is that too big of a leap for us now? Could we change that definition of consistency and shrink it a little bit? Could we say that for right now, consistency is you tracking four days a week. Notice how I'm moving towards the result that I want, right? Four is still more than three. It's a step up the ladder. But when I shrink that change from saying, “I want to hit my macros four days a week, rather than seven days,” our brain goes like, “Okay, I can handle that. I could do that. Yeah, I might have to make some changes and it's not gonna be super easy, but I can do that. That's achievable,” that is the benefit of shrinking the change of redefining consistency with something that is within our reach, and something that feels light and easy that you can accomplish, and yet, continues to move you forward. Once that becomes easy, once hitting your macros four days a week becomes easy, well, now can we move it to five? And then can we move it to six? And then can we ultimately move it to wherever you want to get. Six or seven or whatever it is that you want to get to, but can we do it in a step-by-step basis building on ourselves instead of expecting us to just have this huge leap to whatever it is we define as consistency? 

 

Outcome versus process goals  29:35

So, here's a great question for you to put in your back pocket. What feels light and easy to accomplish and requires me to do something different? So, goals aren't about things the way that they've always been. So, if you're already tracking your macros three days a week, then there's no reason to set a goal to track your macros three days a week because that's what you're already doing. A goal should be something that moves you towards the outcome that you want. But we want to make sure that it feels achievable, and something that we can do. Now, some of you guys who listen to my podcast and are students of mine, and you've listened to every word that I have said in all my prior trainings, you may be wondering, “Amber, when you talk about goals, you talk about setting big, crazy, audacious goals that scare you, and you feel like, “I can't reach those. Those are like–” I always laugh at this idea of setting goals that are achievable. I think that's silly. I think we should be setting these big, huge goals because it propels us forward. So, how can I say both of those things? How can I do something that feels light and easy and then set these big, crazy, outrageous goals. And my response to that would be the difference between the outcome that we are trying to create, and the process that we are using to get there. So, I love this idea of outcome versus process goals. Outcome goals are focused on what we want and where we want to go. And oftentimes, yeah, I think those should be big. We should dream big. We should think outside of the realm of what's reasonable, or that we can actually feel we can hit. I think those goals should be big and drive us. And I think on a day-to-day basis, that's not what we focus on. On a day-to-day basis, what we focus on is what is within our control. On a day-to-day focus, we focus on how can I be a little bit better today than I was yesterday? How can I take a new action today that's going to drive me towards that result? And when we focus on those things, the process which we are taking to get there, that is where we want to focus on light and easy and feeling achievable, and yet just a little bit more than we did yesterday. Okay, so, tip number two is to redefine consistency. And the sub part of that would be to shrink the change. Shrink the change that you are requiring of yourself, so your brain stops freaking the heck out.

 

Tip no. 3: Make it enjoyable 32:04  

And then tip number three, maybe my favorite, and that is to make it enjoyable. Oftentimes, we feel the way to achieve something is to just exert more self-control. To exert more willpower. And yet, at the same time, we've all been told that self-control is an exhaustible resource. It's not an unlimited resource. And so, we're trying to use something that we have a finite amount of in a day, our willpower, our self- control, and use that as our only strategy to be able to do a different action than we've done in the past. Change is not hard because you are lazy. Change is not hard because you lack willpower. Change is not hard because you lack self-control. Change is hard because you wear yourself out. Because you are using an exhaustible resource, and you are hitting the limit of the amount of willpower that you have in a day. So, the question starts to become, “How can I use less willpower?' not more, “how can I use less willpower to make this choice?” And one of the best ways to use less willpower is to make it enjoyable, to make it something that you want to do, to make it something that you don't have to exert any willpower or self-control over to accomplish. I mean, think about something that you like to do. Whether it's reading a book, going out to lunch, going to a concert, whatever it is something that you like to do, do you have to talk yourself into it? Do you have to exert all of this willpower to be like, “Oh, I said that I wanted to go to the concert, and I'm gonna just willpower my way and go to the concert,” or you like, “Heck, yeah, I get to go to the concert. I'm so excited. Nothing can hold me back from going to this concert. It's going to be such a blast. When we enjoy something, we don't have to use self-control, or willpower. We do it because we want to do it. And this is why I preach so much inside of macros 101. And if you ever hear me talk about creating a customized plan, this idea that you have to, have to, have to enjoy it. We cannot just use willpower. We cannot just have a suck our way to suck it up, and push our way to the results that we want. Enjoying the process is the way to get to where you want to go. 

 

Reflect why you are struggling with consistency 34:39 

So, let's reflect on maybe where you are struggling with consistency. What area of your life are you struggling specifically with consistency right now? Are you enjoying the process? Is it fun for you? Or is it a drag? Is it something that you have to willpower your way to do. And if you find that it is the ladder, a great question to ask yourself is, “How could this be more fun?” I love that question. How could this be more fun? If it's not currently fun because, look, first of all, fun is a perspective to people. Here's a great example. I went to CrossFit. In fact, this happened this morning. I was looking at the WOD. We were standing around the board. Looking at the WOD for the day. And I said, “This looks fun. This workout looks really fun,” and one of the other participants was like, “You have a warped sense of fun. This does not look fun,” and it's such a good example because both of us were looking at the exact same workout. And to me, it was fun. And to this other person, it was not fun. So, there's not one definition of fun. Fun is a perspective. And so, if you are not currently having fun with something, it doesn't mean you just have to not ever do it. It means how can we change your perspective on this to make it more fun? So, a great question that opens your mind for possibilities of what could be is, “How could I make this more fun?” Or set another way? What would specifically make me enjoy this more and see what comes up? And how can you implement that in your journey, so that you're using less willpower, you're using less self-control, and it's something that you want to do. 

 

Make it fun and enjoyable 36:32

I love to gamify things with myself, with my clients, with my kids. If we all know, if you're a parent, you'll relate to this. When your kids are little, and you want them to go get their jammies on and their teeth brushed, and you say, “Okay, I'll time you. See how fast you can go,” And then you time them, and they get super excited. And they race and they put on their jammies and they brush their teeth, and they come downstairs, and they're so excited. They're like, “What was my time?” and you tell them. And they're so excited about it. They just did it and had no problems with it. And all you did was make it a game. You just made it a game. How can you do that in your own journey? How can you make it a game? This comes up a lot with tracking. People have a terrible relationship with tracking, or they don't enjoy tracking. It's not fun. The people who like tracking have figured out a way to make it a game. To make it fun. And that may look different for what tracking looks like for you that feels fun. And it may look different for somebody else. But at the end of the day, it has to be fun, it has to be enjoyable, it has to be something that you on some level want to do. Not that it's like your favorite thing in the whole world. But on some level, you have to want to do it for it to stick, and for you to do it consistently day in and day out. And so if you're struggling with consistency, ask yourself on a scale of 0-10, “How much am I enjoying this?” And whatever number comes up for you, how could you move that number? Let's say if you say, “Oh, three, I'm not really enjoying this at all,” awesome. Well, how can you move it to a four? How could you reimagine what this is or what it looks like to move it up to a four or a five? So, we're getting back into that idea of shrinking the change. We're not jumping to a 10. Tracking doesn't have to be your very favorite thing that you do all day long. But how can we just make it a little bit more enjoyable, so that you're exerting less willpower and actually enjoying the process. 

 

Recap 39:58 

Okay, so those are my big three tips. Tip number one, get curious about it. Tip number two, redefine consistency. And number three, make it enjoyable. So, now, this is where you get to take what you learned and actually put it into practice. Because sitting here listening is a great first step. But nothing is going to change in your life. You aren't going to be any more consistent If you just listen to this podcast. What must happen is you must take the information that you have learned, and you must apply it to your life. And that my friend is what's going to make the difference. 

 

Let me know what you are doing to move forward to improve your consistency  39:58 

I hope that you enjoyed this episode, and that you are ready to put this into action. Put the things that you have learned into practice, so that you can create a different result. And when you do, snap a screenshot of this episode, put it up on your Instagram, put it up on Facebook, and tag me. Let me know what you are doing to move forward. To improve your consistency. Not to be perfect. Not to be 100% because that's setting yourself up for failure. Nobody is perfect. But what are you doing to improve your consistency a little bit to move forward day-to-day being a little bit better today than you were tomorrow and a little bit better tomorrow than you were today. That wraps up this episode of Biceps after Babies Radio. I'm Amber, now, go out and be strong because remember, my friend, you can do anything.

 

Outro

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