The Emotional Key To Consistency
One of the biggest aids to our consistency will be our ability to stay emotionally regulated throughout the process of chasing our dreams. We can’t let the highs get too high, or the lows get too low. I’ve seen this a lot from people in sales. They have one fantastic week where they can’t be told no, and now they want to run through the streets naked. Then they follow that up with a week where they couldn’t even close a door, let alone a sale, and they want to find the nearest cliff.
The ones who have the most success in sales are the ones who show up every week to put in the same effort regardless of how good or bad the previous one was. They understand that either they owe the numbers (as in they need to put in more work) or the numbers owe them (meaning the good and the bad days are coming).
We need to have the same approach to the work of our dreams. I am not talking about the day when we achieve them. On that day, we are all welcome to go to the highest of highs and run through the streets naked if we so choose (I wouldn’t recommend it, but to each their own). I’m talking about the consistent day-in, day-out work that we have to put in for our dreams.
This is the work of sitting down to write every day or week to achieve our dream of getting published. This is the work of going to the gym every few days to achieve our dream of running a marathon. This is the work of saying no to alcohol every minute of every day to achieve the dream of being sober. It’s the part of chasing a dream that is magical, and it’s also the part that we have to grind through.
We have to show up whether the inspiration and motivation decide to join us or not. We make big decisions when we are feeling positive; unfortunately, we have to follow through on those decisions even when those positive feelings fade. The option exists where we can walk away, but we choose not to because we know those positive feelings will return. Our dreams feel too right to let go of, and they are worth all those hard days.
Here’s the thing: we love to put timelines on our dreams. It’s easy to do but hard to achieve. Our dreams have their own timelines, no matter how much we don’t want to adhere to them. We have to commit to our dreams no matter how long they take. We have to commit to the work no matter how easy or hard the days are.
And this is a hard thing, but it’s also beautiful. We are in communion with our dreams for the rest of our lives. Hopefully, it doesn’t take that long, but that’s the commitment we make because we love our dream for everything it is and could be.
I hope you hold on to this reminder on the hard days. This was my first week back in selling insurance, and I had success. I had the level of success that would have pushed me towards running through the streets six years ago. And it’s not like I’m not proud of myself or I don’t appreciate the success today. It’s just that this insurance work isn’t my dream anymore. It’s just a way to support my dream.
I could attribute it to the fact that I’m older and more mature than I was six years ago. I mean, seriously, I’ve been married for four years, had a child, survived a deployment, and two PCSs. That’s a lot of life that I’ve lived, and thankfully, I’m growing up through it. But I’m still feeling those same things with this writing dream. I spent the day running appointments and meeting with clients. I woke up at 5:30 and hit the road at 6:30. I spent the whole day seeing people and driving around to get back home for dinner at 6:30 pm. So it’s been a long day after a long day yesterday.
I am tired, but I have this post to write. Of course, I should have been more on top of things, so this was ready to go, but I didn’t. I could have stepped back tonight and said I’ve had a long day, but my dream still needs me to show up. Everything I’ve achieved over the last few days was for my dreams, which means I need to keep showing up in every way that I can because I have committed to my dream for the next however many decades it takes.
Make the commitment to your dream. Join your dream in communion for life because it is a beautiful journey to go on. And stay level because when we zoom out to look at a lifetime with our dream, those hard days aren’t as bad, and the good days aren’t as outstanding. We’ll find that this commitment and consistency will level us out into a beautiful life.