Is Consistency Alone Really the Key?

I figured it might be a good idea to start off my new blog with looking back on my first ever blogging project and why I did not manage to keep it up. Therefore, I am wondering about what is really meant by the idiom “Consistency is Key” and what I have confused it with in the past.

Although this blog is an all-new project of mine, it is not the first blog post I am ever writing. In fact, I created my first blog just shortly before going to China for studying two and a half years ago. Back then, I wanted to write all around traveling and document all the amazing things I experienced during my time abroad. It worked well for a while and I received great feedback from family and friends, but eventually I lost interest and my drive to continue publishing. What happened?

Driven by Expectations Rather Than Joy

Reflecting about why I started the travel blog in the first place, today I know that I was probably too focused on what I was expecting to come out of it, also on what I imagined others to expect from it. I really enjoyed the process of setting up my first blog in WordPress, learning all those web design basics and tweaking every small detail, every pixel. But then when it was actually time to start publishing, some of the joy faded away.

I felt like now that everything was set up and ready I need to deliver. I started putting deadlines to publish new articles and to post random inspirational quotes on social media, just for the sake of keeping things going. Long story short, the blog doesn’t exist anymore and under its domain you can apparently now find a shitty clothing shop.¹ Rest in peace.

I managed myself to kill the joy of publishing on my own blog by trying to make it fit all the requirements and rules I thought exist.

Turning off my Street Lights

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Learning from my own experiences, today I have a very different view and plan for this blog right here. My best friend came up with a well-fitting metaphor for the situation I was in for the most part of the last years, trying out lots of stuff.

I was behaving like a moth in the night being stuck with lots of street lights around me. Whenever I would discover something exciting – a bright shining street light – I went all in on it, trying to figure it out and making sense of it. When I got really excited, I even started to take some action, like creating a blog, having a great time and learning a lot in the process. But once the joy started to decline, when I started to care too much about expectations and imaginary rules… let me tell you, suddenly those other street lights around me started to look a lot brighter than the one I was at right now. Off I was to the next one.

So now, instead of being stuck with the street lights, I turn them off or find myself a nice little forest without light around and focus on what is coming from within myself. Apparently, not just metaphorically, street lights really make it difficult for moths to do their job right too.²

Not Looking for a Key, but a Consistent Me

Based on my own experiences, I now know that consistency alone, as in steadiness, is not enough for me to be able to stick with working on something. It needs to be connected to joy from within myself for it to be sustainable.

On this blog I want to share my learnings, experiences and helpful practices to become exactly that – a Consistent Me.

You are welcome to stop by every now and then and I hope you can find something valuable in some of the things I am sharing. If you want to know a little bit more about me, check here.

Looking forward to your comments below this article.