“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”
– Anthony Robbins
Consistency.
That is the hardest concept ever! Especially if you are used to doing things out of spurts and are a procrastinator. I remember feeling as though I didn’t have control. Control over my children, my eating, and my thoughts, nor did I have control over my feelings. I was just wavering every way and I didn’t have boundaries; everything was running together, and it was hard to keep up. Everything was lacking! I was drowning, overwhelmed, and sad. I asked myself often, why am I feeling this way? Why is everything spinning out of control? Why am I losing control? Have you ever felt this way?
Becoming a wife and mother has taught me that being consistent is crucial. A question just came to me as I’m writing this, are you being consistently positive or is it negative?? What I mean by this question is, what are your outcomes of being consistent? Are they positive or are they negative? Are you being consistent in producing fruit or are you fruitless in your consistency?
I was always tired and never had the energy, so I was doing a bare minimum in my house duties and observing that my children were doing the same thing as me, which was NOTHING!!! Sometimes it takes observation to see where the root of the issue is. Our children need structure (and believe it or not we adults need structure too), and they must learn what boundaries are. As a child, I didn’t have boundaries. I guess being the only child, my mom was very open, so it trickled down to my children. But when you have more than one child, sometimes boundaries are necessary for you and their sanity. I can honestly say that by being consistent with my children’s certain things I don’t have to repeat. For instance, when my daughter gets ready for school, she knows that she must make her bed every morning. At one point I would say it on Monday then wait until Friday to tell her again. We weren’t getting anywhere with how things were to be done at home. Even when we mothers are tired, we must be consistent. I feel as though when we are not consistent then our kids won’t take us seriously. We must constantly teach them about every little thing. My husband sent me this tweet from Dr. Caleb Burgess, and he quoted, “My dad first took me to the gym when I was 14 years old. He would wake up at 5 a.m. to go with me 3-4x/week, before school and before his work. For the past 20 years since that first morning we went, the longest I’ve gone without working out is 2 weeks. The little things you do with your kids can have profound effects on the habits they develop for life.” This is so true, when you start something with your child/ren keep doing that thing because you are teaching your child/ren the value of being consistent and disciplined. Starting your day make a schedule of how you want to navigate. If you’re anything like me, I do not like to go on time so just make a list of all the things that I want the kids and I do and check it off. Make sure that your list is realistic and that it doesn’t overwhelm you.
Not only that but we must be consistent with ourselves. I love to eat and working out is not my priority. Now that I’m getting older, I must control myself from eating a lot, and working out is a must. Even when I don’t want to work out and I just want to lay around, I have to remind myself of my goals. I can’t be physically fit and healthy if I’m lying around. It’s a mindset that we must set for ourselves. I remember when God asked me this question, “What are you committed to?” I mean I have my husband and my children but that was just the surface. The Holy Spirit then asked me, “How deep Is your commitment? He told me, you haven’t fully committed to me so how can you fully commit to yourself and others? I feel like to be consistent you must be committed. I must commit to God because he pours into me the things I need to commit to my husband and to my children. I have a shirt that says when I put God first, I am a better person. And if I tell you that is the realest statement ever! I must be consistent in praying, I have to be consistent in reading my bible because when I do those things, I know for a fact that the Holy Spirit will bring his word to the forefront of my mind, and I have no choice but to be more like Christ. And because I have given my all to God and he has poured into me I can pour into my husband and my children and to myself.
How do you want your child/ren to act? What is your dream? What is it that you want to become? What do you want to change? Why are you procrastinating? Being consistent will shape us to that end game.
We as people are not perfect, we are going to make mistakes. But from those mistakes, we must learn from them. We must set realistic rules and boundaries for our families. Set those goals and boundaries and be consistent.