“Sometimes you have to choose health, life and love over and over again until your being is ready to accept the new version of you”

Yung Pueblo

Whether your goal is to lose weight, get off your medications, reverse your chronic disease or just feel and look better AND you seem to always come up short and fail to reach your goal, the real reason this happens is because you lack consistency. I know that sounds so cliché, but it’s true. You don’t stick to any plan long enough to see results and experience lasting change. You drink water and eat healthy for a week or a month, drop a few pounds and then you stop. You join the gym but never go. You commit to drinking only water but when soda is on sale 3 for $10, you cave. Believe me, this is not to throw shade or cast any judgement. But we must accept the sometimes-harsh truths about the reality of our lives (myself included).  

The definition of consistent is, “not having or showing any apparent conflict”.  The definition of consistently is, “on every relevant occasion”. Some synonyms for consistently are, “continually, perpetually and unfailing”. The reason you fail is because you don’t do the things you need to do on every relevant occasion. The habits needed to lose weight are not engaged in continually, perpetually, and unfailingly. There is an apparent conflict in what you say you want for your life and the way your life is. This demonstrates a lack of consistency. But it’s not enough to just say you will be more consistent. We must delve a little further and uncover additional layers.

Underneath consistency is the layer of discipline. If you aren’t disciplined, you won’t be consistent. Discipline involves doing the thing you may not want to do regardless of how you feel. Developing the character trait of discipline will allow you to be consistent. Discipline also reveals the character trait of patience. A disciplined person does what they need to do for however long it takes. When they don’t reach their goal immediately, they don’t stop. They keep pushing.

“Small disciplines repeated with consistency everyday lead to great achievements garnered slowly over time”

“The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do. The successful person doesn’t like doing them either, but his dislike is subordinated to the strength of his purpose”

There is one final layer to peel back when talking about consistency, and that is. Desire breeds discipline, which breeds consistency, which results in reaching your health and wellness goals. To desire something is, “to have an earnest wish to own or enjoy”. The synonyms of desire are, “to ache for, yearn for, and hunger for”. A desire is “a strong wish for something”. You must have a passion and longing for your health and wellness goals. You must have a passion to lose weight or stop taking your medications. If the desire is lacking; if you don’t want it bad enough discipline and consistency will be nonexistent. The desire to lose weight must be greater than your desire to overeat. The desire to lose weight must be greater than the comfort of being overweight. The desire to build the body of your dreams must be greater than your desire to relax on the couch or nap. Your desire to get off your hypertension medicine must be greater than your desire to eat fast food.

Yes, you lack consistency. But there is also a lack of discipline and a fundamental lack of desire. The desire is the key. Once the desire is present, the discipline and consistency will follow. The real reason you haven’t reached your health and wellness goals is you aren’t consistent. But all that really means is you don’t want it bad enough.

Desire + Discipline + Consistency = Reaching Your Goal

“The starting point of all achievement is desire”

Napoleon Hill

Kathleen is a Published Author, Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Nutrition and Wellness Consultant, Vaginal Steam Practitioner, Yin Yoga Instructor, Death & Mourning Doula, Intermittent Fasting Specialist and Herbalist.