I met someone new the other day. We hardly knew each other yet we spoke like we were old friends. I was telling her about always wanting to have learned Arabic. She’s Moroccan and she said she was advancing her own Arabic. But she said something that stuck with me. She said, it’s about being consistent. Someone who learns a little bit everyday will go further than someone who is doing it once a week. She said just take five minutes every morning to learn a new word. I’ve been at it, and I do slip – there are days I don’t do it. But it’s not always about the fact that you stop. It’s the fact that you keep getting back on. It reminds me of something I wrote when I started boxing:
“I come here almost everyday. I didn’t intend that at the beginning. I thought I’d come a few days a week. For the first week, I came five times. Thought it made sense to take the weekend off. Then the next week, my husband suggested to go just for a bit on the weekend. And I thought, why not ? Weekends are quieter and I like the space I have. It’s just me and the bag. And I only intended to go for ten minutes. But once I get there ten sit ups turn to thirty. Ten punches turn into thirty and so on. I ended up being there for a good 45. And now, I want to go everyday. And sometimes I just intend to be there for a bit because I know once I get there, once I show up, I want to do more. It feels good. It feels expansive. Most of all, it’s engraining a feeling of showing up for myself, of me committing to myself and its overflowing into the other parts of my life. If I can do this consistently then I can do a lot more consistently. I’m building that trust in myself and that trust is rooted in myself and my own mind.”
Once we become consistent about something, it has a knock on effect. We convince ourselves of who we are by just doing. Everyday, day in day out, saying I will be this person and you become that person. We fire, we wire, we create stronger neural networks. We become
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