Does it ever feel like everyone except for you has some trick up their sleeve to get a bunch of chores done and learn new skills? 

We all struggle sticking with something. In the movie Toy Story, Woody stuck with saving Buzz, and Rex had to stick with practicing how to roar, but people in the real world can also struggle with staying consistent.

During quarantine, it seems that everyone has been painting their living rooms, remodeling their campers, or perfecting their bread baking. If you feel alone, do not worry, you are not the only one who struggles to stick with a task long enough to actually excel at it and finish.

Here are three tricks to be consistent with anything from making the bed every morning to learning how to play the guitar. 

3 Ways to Stay Consistent:

1. Be specific!

   (Like a scorned wife recounting the times her husband has messed up)

   You have just finished binge watching Game of Thrones, and you’re interested in learning High Valyrian. You might start out practicing for an hour each day, but before you know it, you realize you only practiced for 3 minutes on Monday, and then on Thursday you thought about practicing, but decided to watch another episode of Tiger King instead.  Pretty soon, you’ve stopped practicing altogether.

   You should instead be specific about the amount of time to practice, or the specific content of your practice. 

   TIME: “Practice High Valyrian on Duolingo for 30 minutes every weekday by 5pm”

   CONTENT: “Do 5 High Valyrian lessons on Duolingo each weekday by 5pm”

2. Have consequences!

   (They’re as important as the glue that keeps granny’s dentures from falling out)

   You can either create pleasant consequences for sticking to your plan, or unpleasant consequences for not doing so. These consequences should be specific to you.

   PLEASANT:  “If you practice High Valyrian every weekday, you go out for a beautiful, juicy burrito at your favorite Mexican restaurant on Saturday that week (or get delivery if you’re supposed to be quarantining)”

   UNPLEASANT:  “For each night you haven’t done your High Valyrian lesson by 5pm, you need to give someone in your house a 30 minute foot rub before going to sleep”

3. Treat your friends!

   (they should be as excited as your dog when you get home from work)

   If there is no one checking in on you about your goals, there is a good chance you will cheat even though you began with great intentions. Sometimes accountability can make or break your plans, but only if your friend is motivated to hold you accountable.

   SUCCESS:  If your accountability friend loves Mexican food as much as you do, it will be in their best interest to make sure that you practice each day so they also can get some beautiful, juicy burritos at the end of the week.

   FAILURE:  If your accountability friend loves foot massages, you better believe they will be paying close attention to whether or not you did your High Valyrian practice each day.

Is this real life?

To the right is a template you can use with your super cool accountability friend. This one is filled in based on the example from above, but can be changed to fit your preferences. See below for a free download of this chart.

The Takeaway

If you want to accomplish something that takes consistent work, you need to be specific, make consequences, and have someone help you to stick to your plan. 

Not following these steps could result in falling short of your goals and feeling like you have wasted your time. So what have you been itching to do that you’ve never been able to stay consistent with?  Go out there and perfect your pickle recipe, floss your teeth every night, or finally learn how to paint like Bob Ross.  Reach for the sky!