Consistently consistent

I wasn’t going to post today because excuses, excuses but I’ve been thinking a lot about consistency, and coincidentally came across this blog post the other day:

I think there are enough people out there so bored on their phone, on their computer, on their whatever, just looking for anything halfway interesting. And I bet if you’re an artist, you can be at least halfway interesting.

The only thing you have to do is be consistent.

I don’t know about being halfway interesting, but what I’m definitely not is consistent.

I’m actually in awe of anyone who can do a thing for an extended period of time. I tend to cycle around moods and activities and interests. If I’m consistent in anything it’s my inconsistency. And maybe that’s okay generally (I don’t know), but it’s something I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to work on.

I find it to be a bit of a chicken-and-egg kind of situation. What you believe about yourself affects how you act, but how you act also affects what you believe about yourself. And so the action allows for the belief and the belief facilitates the action or vice versa.

Point being: I wasn’t going to post today because I thought I had nothing “interesting” to say, but that’s just an excuse. My goal isn’t to be more interesting, it’s to be more consistent and to show up when I say I’m going to show up. Whether or not I’m interesting is a different matter.

I’ve always liked Austin Kleon’s take on the topic:

If you want followers, be someone worth following. [“Have you tried making yourself more interesting?”] seems like a really mean thing to say, unless you think of the word interesting the way writer Lawrence Weschler does: For him, to be “interest-ing” is to be curious and attentive, and to practice “the continual projection of interest.” To put it more simply: If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.

I think of that often whenever I’m going through the mental negotiations of deciding whether or not to share something. I have no shortage of things I’m interested in, but I do struggle with the sharing. The sharing takes a lot of energy and for a long time I didn’t have that energy. But I’m finding it easier the better I feel.

Anyway, this is not a post about being interesting. It’s a post about being consistent. And to that end I’ve been successful this day, so go me.