consistency

Consistency has always been tricky for me - it’s the rebel in me that fights off routine, jumping feet first into the possibilities of the unknown. There I can dream and fend off accountability to see my dreams through. It’s always felt heavy and oppressive.

Consistency rooted in shame and punishment is not the kind of consistency I’m talking about. I’m talking about the kind of consistency that creates the conditions you need to thrive.

Let’s say you’re struggling with lack of energy (who isn’t?) and you want to change this. Consistency rooted in love and support says, “Let’s get at least 8 hours of sleep every night so that I wake up feeling refreshed, feeling good, and ready to meet the day.”

Consistency rooted in shame and punishment says, “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you just go to bed when you should? Why can’t you function on the sleep you get when so many people get less? You’re so weak and incapable. Just push through - and don’t you dare let it show. Also, do better.”

This is one of the incredible lessons plants have taught me - consistency can be learned through the smallest of acts, and it can feel good, amazing even. Why? Because consistency creates trust and trust creates connection and people need connection.

The simple act of observing your plants, just for a moment, each day can become a seed of consistency in you, and all of those moments can grow into this beautiful gift of you reliably showing up for yourself and the world and people around you.

The kind of confidence and trust that comes from consistency rooted in love and support might be something you’ve never felt before; that was certainly the case for me. It doesn’t feel heavy and oppressive - it feels like empowerment, like the rising sun or the crashing waves. It feels steady and strong like the mountains or the enduring bristlecone pine bearing witness to life for 5,000 years.

Books on consistency

  • Trust is a word we use a lot. But have you ever learned how to make smart decisions about trust? How to earn the trust of other people? Or, how to repair trust when it breaks down? Rachel Botsman has helped the world's brightest minds change the way they think about trust. Now, in How to Trust and Be Trusted, she shares those insights with you in five clear principles.

    Curated to strengthen connection and engagement, these five principles guide the listener through a series of accessible and relatable lessons, all with the groundbreaking framework of placing trust at the center of our daily conversations, decisions, and behaviors.

    Leveraging more than a decade of research, Botsman examines the fundamental principles of high trust teams and cultures, combining eye-opening insights with compelling stories. Botsman guides listeners through interactive exercises that challenge our assumptions around trust, teaching us how to develop as individuals and team players-and ultimately experience the profound impact mutual trust can have on our lives.

    Botsman has engaged with graduates, CEOs, start-up founders, and leaders from all walks of life about their trust challenges. In How to Trust and Be Trusted, she distills the most powerful takeaways to share new and unique ways to rethink trust and shine a light on its powerful role in personal and professional fulfillment.

    Learn how to give your trust to the right people and how to be more trustworthy. It can be life-changing.and Be Trusted, she shares those insights with you in five clear principles.

    Curated to strengthen connection and engagement, these five principles guide the listener through a series of accessible and relatable lessons, all with the groundbreaking framework of placing trust at the center of our daily conversations, decisions, and behaviors.

    ORDER HERE

  • We think that productivity is all about hard work. That the road to success is lined with endless frustration and toil. But what if there’s another way?

    Dr Ali Abdaal – the world's most-followed productivity expert – has uncovered an easier and happier path to success. Drawing on decades of psychological research, he has found that the secret to productivity and success isn't grind – it's feeling good. If you can make your work feel good, then productivity takes care of itself.

    In this revolutionary book, Ali reveals how the science of feel-good productivity can transform your life. He introduces the three hidden 'energisers' that underpin enjoyable productivity, the three 'blockers' we must overcome to beat procrastination, and the three 'sustainers' that prevent burnout and help us achieve lasting fulfillment. He recounts the inspiring stories of founders, Olympians, and Nobel-winning scientists who embody the principles of Feel-Good Productivity. And he introduces the simple, actionable changes that you can use to achieve more and live better, starting today.

    ORDER HERE

  • Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us.

    Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, rebuilds our broken model of resilience with one grounded in the latest science and psychology. In Do Hard Things, Magness teaches us how we can work with our body – how experiencing discomfort, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action can be the true indications of cultivating inner strength. He offers four core pillars to cultivate such resilience: 

    • Pillar 1: Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality

    • Pillar 2: Listen to Your Body

    • Pillar 3: Respond, Instead of React 

    • Pillar 4: Transcend Discomfort   

    Smart and wise all at once, Magness flips the script on what it means to be resilient. Drawing from mindfulness, military case studies, sports psychology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, he provides a roadmap for navigating life’s challenges and achieving high performance that makes us happier, more successful, and, ultimately, better people.

    ORDER HERE

  • Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?

    Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.

    From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.

    ORDER HERE