You've heard it time and time again: "Consistency is key. Just keep showing up!"
But what if that's a challenge for you as a multi-passionate person?
What if the concept of being consistent feels like an impossible goal?
What if you've really tried your hardest to remain consistent with something only to get distracted along the way, or feel like you need to take a break... does that make you wrong or bad?
If you're not motivated by consistency, does that mean you'll never be successful?
We're unpacking all of the above in today's episode.
I personally think that consistency is overrated. Let's talk about what to focus on instead, especially if you're multi-passionate.
⬇️ SHOW NOTES ⬇️
Ready to FINALLY break free from the pressure of doing "all the things" at once?! Prioritize and Thrive has the coaching, course, and community that you need. Learn more and join us by visiting https://multipassionatemastery.com/coaching
-
Please note that any of the offers mentioned in this episode are no longer relevant as my business is closing. If you'd like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn!
You've heard it time and time again: "Consistency is key. Just keep showing up!"
But what if that's a challenge for you as a multi-passionate person?
What if the concept of being consistent feels like an impossible goal?
What if you've really tried your hardest to remain consistent with something only to get distracted along the way, or feel like you need to take a break... does that make you wrong or bad?
If you're not motivated by consistency, does that mean you'll never be successful?
We're unpacking all of the above in today's episode.
I personally think that consistency is overrated. Let's talk about what to focus on instead, especially if you're multi-passionate.
⬇️ SHOW NOTES ⬇️
Ready to FINALLY break free from the pressure of doing "all the things" at once?! Prioritize and Thrive has the coaching, course, and community that you need. Learn more and join us by visiting https://multipassionatemastery.com/coaching
-
Please note that any of the offers mentioned in this episode are no longer relevant as my business is closing. If you'd like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn!
You've heard it time and time again. Consistency is key. Just keep showing up. But what if that's a challenge for you as a multi-passionate person? What if the concept of being consistent feels like an impossible goal. What if you've really tried your hardest to remain consistent with something only to get distracted along the way, or feel like you need to take a break. Does that make you wrong or bad? Or does that mean that you'll never be successful? That's what I want to talk about in today's episode. I personally think that consistency is overrated. So we're going to talk about that a little bit, and I'm going to give you something else to focus on instead if this idea of being consistent has been a challenge for you. Let's get into it. Welcome to the Multi-passionate Mastery Podcast. The podcast where creatives come to embrace their talents as a gift, not a burden. I am your host, D'Ana Joi. Together we'll explore how to finally make friends with focus, ditching overwhelm, and idea fatigue once and for all, and how to be unapologetic about who you are as a multi-passionate. But I'm not just going to pump you up with a bunch of empowerment content. I'm going to give you tools and practices that you can implement starting today. It's time to unlock your multi-passionate mastery. Let's begin. Consistency is key. It's one of those things that we've heard time and time again. That we never really challenge. We just go, okay, well then I guess I better be consistent. I better keep showing up day in and day out. But if you're multi-passionate, there's probably been a point where you'd beat yourself up for not being able to stay consistent with the projects that you start. You have a ton of ideas competing for your attention at any given time. And just choosing one to start with is hard enough, choosing something that is ongoing and telling yourself that you need to be consistent with. It can make you feel like you are starting at a deficit. Like you're already up against something that does not feel attainable for you. Today, we're going to talk about why I feel that consistency. Is overrated. It's one of those concepts that again, we never question, and those are my favorites to unpack Now, if you have a great relationship with the idea of being consistent, if you're like, listen Joi,"consistency is key" is my personal mantra in my life. And it guides all of my decisions and that's how I've been able to accomplish everything I've been able to accomplish." That is totally fine. I'm not here to convince you that consistency is wrong or bad. However, if you have found it challenging, I want to give you a new way to look at it that will soften things for you. According to the Oxford dictionary. The definition of consistency is conformity and the application of something. Typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness. The synonyms are evenness steadiness. Stability. Constancy regularity and uniformity. So, let me ask you this. When you hear that definition. As a creative person, as a multi-passionate, as someone who has many talents, many interests, so much that you want to share in this lifetime. When you hear that the first word. And the definition of consistency is the word conformity. How does that make you feel? Are you a person who typically likes to conform? Is that your personality? Do you conform to something just because it's logical. Does that sound exciting for you? Does that light you up? Does that make you want to get up and put your work out into the world day after day, conformity in the application of something typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness. Because if not, that might be why this whole consistency is key thing isn't landing for you. When I read this definition, I was like, okay, well, no wonder. I'm not that into the concept of being consistent. I'm not a conformist. I'm a little bit of a rebel. I think most multi-passionate it's are. Even if you don't know it, if you're a multi-passionate person and you want to live your life and honor that, you're kind of rebelling against society that tells you that choosing one thing is the only path to success and that specialist are going to get ahead in the world over and above multi passionates. If you're anything like me, you're like, fuck that. I'm not going to choose one thing. I am going to be more than one thing. I'm going to share more than one part of myself and that gets to be okay. That's the opposite of conforming. And that's why I want to challenge this idea of consistency when it comes to being multi-passionate and give you something else to focus on instead that I think is going to resonate a lot more. Now in that definition of consistency, it also says that it's about showing up for the sake of logic. That's basically like saying, I said I was going to do it, so I'm going to do it. It's written on my calendar, so I have to do it. I told people about it, the logical thing is to carry it through. And it also in just layman's terms. It means to do something and show up for it over and over again, regardless of how you're feeling about it in the moment. If you're just basing it off of logic. It's okay."Well, I said I was going to do it, doesn't matter how I'm feeling. I'm going to take emotion out of it and just use my logic." That's what consistency is. So if it's been a challenge for you, It's being consistent has been a struggle for you. Take a moment and honor the fact that you are a human being who's not going to feel the same every single day. Some days you might be absolutely available to show up. And continue to create and continue to share in a way that would look or feel consistent. But there may be other times where truly giving yourself time away. Giving yourself a break or giving yourself permission to completely put something down might be the most aligned thing for you to do, even if it defies logic. Focusing on being consistent. Like I said before, it's not a bad thing. If you don't have any issues with this, then more power to you. But I personally wonder how human is it to ask someone to just keep showing up regardless of how they feel? It's easy for the bro marketers to say rise and grind and hustle. And you just got to keep showing up and just do this and do that. As a woman, as a woman of color. I just don't subscribe. I've just like, I'm not buying it. Like I'm like, ah, No. If I'm tired. If I need to rest, if I don't feel in my heart, like something is right. If something's feeling off, if I need space from it in order to keep going, it's better to take a a break, a pause, then to force myself to go through it, just to be consistent. So, let me ask you this. What if it was okay to not want to do something and to take a day off instead of forcing yourself to be consistent. And what if it was better to honor your unique creative process instead of striving to meet an arbitrary definition of what consistency looks like. I'm not asking you this, hypothetically, I truly want you to think about this. This, these could even be journaling prompts. If you're being completely honest with yourself and you didn't have to share your answers with anyone. Do you really care, do you really feel passionately about consistency; about showing up consistently? Now. I feel like I have to be very clear that I'm not saying. You know, whatever, when you say you're going to do something. Whatever you don't have to do it, you know? That's not what I'm saying. I know that if you are passionate about something, if you have a desire for something. Let's use this podcast as an example, because this project of producing this podcast, recording these episodes, putting content out for you. This has been one of the projects that I have stuck with in the most longterm way. And from the outside, looking in, you could say, oh, you've been able to be so consistent. You've been able to show up consistently. But I don't record episodes every single week. There's some weeks where I do. I might record two at a time. Cause I'm really feeling it. And there are some weeks where I don't. I create a schedule for myself where it's okay if I want to take a day off. Right now, as you're listening to season three, all of these episodes were recorded months ago. If you're listening to this in real time. I probably haven't recorded a new episode in months. Because I took a few weeks to get a lot of episodes recorded so that I could have several months off for maternity leave to be with my baby. Does that mean I'm not consistent? No right? It means that I'm honoring my creative process. I focus more on how I feel about this project. I feel so passionately about using my voice to connect with you. I feel so passionately about sharing work in the world that is specifically for multi-passionate creatives, because we are wildly. Underserved. I feel a sense of devotion to this project so much so that I can take months off and know that I'll be able to pick it back up again. So much so that I can switch from a weekly schedule to a bi-weekly schedule and know that it's going to be okay. That as long as I'm in this energy of devotion and I'm honoring my creative process, I will show up because I want to. Not because I'm striving to be consistent. But because I have a genuine desire. That is so much more motivating for me. Consistency is not motivating to me. I'm not like, well, I gotta be consistent. This is probably why. This is probably why I'm not the best with working out. I've been able to do so many amazing things in my life accomplish so much. Especially when it comes to prioritizing as a multi-passionate person and building my own business and all this. And when it comes to like exercising, I'm just not where I want to be. At least at the time of recording this, I'm not where I want to be with that. And part of it is because the main thing, when it comes to exercises, you just got to show up and do it consistently. And I don't find that motivating. So I think. You know, for me, like having a baby. And knowing that I'm going to have. Uh, one-year-old little boy running around that I want to be able to play with and chase after and run around at the park with that's more motivating for me when it comes to starting to exercise. Feeling like, okay. Well, all I have to do is show up consistently. It's just not motivating. And I'm sharing this with you because you might feel the same way. And I just want to like, get this out into the world. That consistency is not motivating for all of us. And that's okay because. You can choose to focus on your creative process instead. So let's talk about that. What does it look like to focus on? Your creative process, it starts. With curiosity. let's say you have a project of your own. What example can we use? Let's say that you want to write a book. Okay. So. Let's say you want to write a book and you join a course or something or a program. And they say, okay, if you want to write a book, just wake up every day and make sure that you're being consistent and that you're writing every day. Consistency is key. Now. Even saying that I'm like ill barf, who cares? Right. So, wow. I'm really, I guess I feel more strongly about this than I realized, but let's say that's how this book writing program presents it to you. They say, well, consistency is key. You need to get up and you need to write every day. So, if you have given some thought to this, you could hear that and say,"okay, totally get it. That's very standard advice. I'm going to take that with a grain of salt and instead. I'm going to become curious about my creative process and what that might look like." What that might look like is. What environment is going to nurture my desire to write today? What do I need in order to feel good about sitting down to write? Maybe what you need is to be full. You need to eat. You need to be hydrated. You need to be well rested. Right. Maybe what you need is a quiet environment outside of your home. Maybe what you need. Isn't a quiet environment outside of your home, but you need to have some kind of vibes. You've got to get like some candles and some crystals and set the scene. Before you start writing. Maybe you need to tell someone, Hey, I'm writing today. I'm going to text you at the end of the day and let you know how it went, because you need someone else to know what you're doing in order for you to feel that accountability. Uh, asking yourself, what does my creative process look like? If my goal is to write this book. And, you know, I want to do it in this amount of time. Where can I lean on my creative process to support me in my dedication and my devotion to this goal? As a creative person, you're going to come up with so many more solutions. And such a deeper understanding of yourself than you would, if your goal was just all right, gotta be consistent. You'll pay attention to. When you feel inspired to work and when you don't. You can pay attention to when you need to rest and not make that wrong. You might be able to say, I can write three days in a row, but on day four, I don't want to look at a computer. That's my creative process. You can push back on this concept of taking a break from something means. That you're not being consistent. And you can honor that as a part of your creative process instead. That is what I've done. And that is how I've been able to continue to produce this podcast. We're on season three, it's been over a year that this podcast has been running. I still feel like I'm just getting started, loving it more and more all the time. And I'm going to tell you, consistency did not get me here because it's not motivating to me. Honoring my creative process and also being in a state of passion and devotion to what I'm doing. That's what got me here. And as a fellow multi-passionate creative. I have a feeling. That it could be very similar for you. So to wrap this up, if you have struggled with being consistent or you don't find the idea of consistently showing up to be very motivating for you. I encourage you instead to get curious about your creative process. Maybe you have stalled on a project. Maybe you are trying to post on social media three times a week and a couple of weeks have gone by and you just, you haven't done it. You have choices, you can beat yourself up for not being consistent. Like all the marketing gurus tell you, you have to be. Or you can become curious. Haven't posted in a few weeks. What's going on. Hm. Well, I'm not really giving myself permission to say what I really want to say. Some avoiding it. Or, well, you know, I'm starting to find social media really draining. Maybe I need to find another outlet. You can have much more meaningful conversations with yourself. That will help you understand your process way more. If you come from a place of being curious about your creative process over and above, just saying. Oh, no, I missed some time. Are I skipped a week? I'm not consistent. And everyone says consistency is key. I'm failing at this and then going down that road. So I invite you to join me in this rebellion. Let go of the forced energy of being consistent and surrender to becoming curious about your own creative process. From there, you can create a structure and a flow that works for you. That's what really matters. What matters is bringing you to whatever project you're working on. It's okay if it's not day in and day out. It's okay. If you take a break, a pause or even a pivot. Because the energy that you put behind it is what matters. And the forced energy of just trying to show up so you can be consistent while I'm sure a lot of people do get great results from that for highly multi-passionate folks like you and I. I just don't think that's going to be the main motivator. Let me wrap this up by saying that becoming curious about a creative process doesn't mean that you won't be able to show up. It doesn't mean that you're going to show up one day and then go ghost the next day. In fact the opposite is likely to happen. Because you won't have this looming thing hanging over your head that you feel that you have failed at in the past which is being consistent... you're going to have a softer approach. You're going to be kinder to yourself. You're going to have more fun. You're way more likely to keep showing up in that energy. Versus the energy of consistency which is about stability, regularity, uniformity. And conformity for the sake of logic. So I'll leave you with that. Something to think about. If you want to chat about this with me, if you have some thoughts on this, which you might, because it's not everyday, you hear someone say consistency is overrated. Please send me a voice note. Down in the show notes it'll say if you have any reflections or thoughts or questions about this episode, send me a voice note. So when you record that note, it goes straight to my inbox and I can listen and I can send you one back and we can chat about this. I would love to hear from you. It's super easy to do. So, if you want to have a dialogue, hit me up. And let me know are you willing to let go a little bit of this idea that consistency is key. And focus on getting to know your own unique creative process instead. I can't wait to hear from you and I'll see you in our next episode. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the multi-passionate mastery podcast. If you received anything valuable from this episode, send it to a friend. I know you've got some creative people in your life who needs to hear this. Also, please take a moment to leave a review. Even sharing one sentence about how you feel about this podcast can help us reach the hearts and ears of more multi passionates. If you're not exactly sure how to leave a review, I've left some instructions for you down in the show notes. Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next episode.