500 Days: Cultivating consistency and showing up

Exactly 500 days ago, I started doing yoga again. It tied in with the new life that I was building for myself, I just didn’t know it at that point. I had just left a job that had been absolute chaos for all aspects of my life. My health was out of control, and I needed a new beginning. Exercise seemed like a good place to start.

It started with hitting seven consecutive days of yoga, it eventually got to 25, and then I just kept going and now I have hit 500 consecutive days. I had no real goal in mind, it just happened to become a daily habit and make me feel healthier. Most importantly, it brought consistency to my life.

Consistency is more than just about your habits or routines; it extends to intrinsic motivation and showing up for yourself.

If you are forming a new habit or working on a project/goal, it is on those tough days that you need to make the effort to still do it. This is what cultivates consistency. You have to put your butt in the chair and work or, in my particular case, get yourself on your yoga mat. Even if it is for 15 minutes, you have kept up the consistency. Despite all the chaos that might be going on around you or whatever might be happening, you have decided to show up for yourself.

It is recognising what you can and cannot control. You can control showing up for yourself.

There were days when I didn’t want to get on my mat because I felt I didn’t have the time that day, or I was just bored with it, or my body was in so much pain and tired from the Long Covid that I was actually in tears on my mat. I still did it. Every. Single. Day. I did it because I knew that my body (and mind) would feel better afterwards.

I have taken the same approach with other aspects of my life that I value. I just show up each day no matter how much I have already done that day or what else has been going on.

You also start holding yourself accountable. You ask yourself how you would feel if you skipped a day of doing something that has become meaningful and valuable in your life. There are one or two things in my routine that I might skip a day, but I have yet to skip a day with yoga. This is the power of consistently showing up for yourself.

Showing up is the hard part. Once you’re there, you just need to do the work. You will find it gets easier each time. But, again, you control whether you decide to show up – no one else can make that decision for you.

That decision 500 days ago to make a small change has allowed me to build a foundation from which to thrive. I have a solid daily routine. My health is much better than it used to be. I am generally calmer and more grounded.

This consistency extends to other parts of my life, in how I have shown up for myself and what decisions I make. This is a less tangible thing to measure because you cannot see it through routines or habits or count the number of days. It is ultimately the self-discipline and self-value that comes through consistency.