Consistency

Hello there Daruma,

I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts around the concept of consistency. 

This email for example, intended to be a weekly email where I connect with you directly and hopefully provide some food for thought has not been written in three weeks or so. 

Now why is that? Well, at the moment my wife and I are looking to buy land and build a house and we did not anticipate how time consuming that would be. Although it makes sense as it is one of the biggest choices we make (atleast for those who only intend to buy one house xD) Or could it be that we are preparing for my daughter to go day-care from april, which means that we want to celebrate weekends such as her birthday a month ago or get all the clothes she will need to use at day care. 

The main point is, there will always be something, there will always be something new that comes up and the question is how to remain consistant with something? 

I think first, depending on what it is, the questions is “why is this important to me?” For example, I have been studying Japanese every day through WaniKani (focussing on Kanji) in the hopes to be able to pass my N2. This is a streak that I have kept for a while but after not passing the last N2 in Jan, and “getting busy” with other priorities, that streak slipped a little bit. At times like this, it is important to think 

1. Why is this important to me?
- The point is to create an emotional intention behind the objective

but at the same time, it is 

2. Do I prioritize this over other things in my life right now?

and I think it is question 2 that plays a much bigger role in how consistant we can be with something. 

If you have read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, it is clear that massive compounding returns can be had by improving 1% a day. Executing desired behavior consistantly allows for the benefit to be reaped over time. However, the challenge is how to priotize Long term gain over short term constriction? 

Going back to Japanese Kanji Practice, while it takes half an hour a day at the least and maybe an hour at most,, when life gets busy it sometimes feels okay to put aside. Thoughts such as “instead of this I need to clean the dishes” or “ I need to fold the laundry” can come in and distract from the immediate discomfort of learning. Bigger picture, this can lead to weeks of not only no progress but gradual decrease in kanji retention, all the while somehow I find time to keep up with Shogun on Disney+. 

I do not want to make this too long of an email, but I wanted to provide a litttle big of an insight as to my experience with the concept of consistancy. It is a challenge most of the time but things take time to reap the rewards? 

It is now that I remind myself. 

1. Why is this important to me? 

2. Do I prioritize this over other things going on in my life right now? 

3. What can I do today? 

The third question is fundamental because there is a bias towards action, is it very easy to create grand plans of “I am going to study everyday for the next year”. This kind of thinking can be inspirational but also mentally self soothing while not ensuring action done in the short term. 

So the question I am curious to learn from you? 

1. What is one thing that you’d be interested in being more consistant on? 

2. What is an action you can take today that reflects that interest?

Please let me know as I would love to have a chat about it, and otherwise I will see you next week :) I will not broadcast what will be written in the upcoming week to provide a little bit more creative space within the week. I will get back to writing the post about low charity giving rates in Japan in the near future. 

See you next week ,

Your Money Daruma, 

Jason