How to be Consistent
THE ART AND PRACTICE OF SHOWING UP
AND SHARING YOUR STORY
Do you struggle with finding the willpower to show up and share your story on a regular basis?
I’ve been there.
For me, the biggest thing that has stopped me in the past was not being clear on why I was writing.
Even today, I know when I’m stuck on an article, something is out of alignment.
I now interpret ‘stuckness’ as a signal, rather than a problem.
And below I share some of the baby steps I took to get consistent when writing newsletters and blog posts.
THE HIDDEN BENEFIT OF BEING CONSISTENT
As someone who had struggled to stay consistent, the best thing about getting consistent has been building a relationship with my readers and feeling a sense of being responsible towards myself, my business and my audience.
I do not have a boss telling me to write.
It is not always easy to write.
But the act of writing and sharing my ideas continues to help me clarify my message and show me where to lean in and where I need to rethink how I am adding value.
THE VALUE OF A CONSISTENT PRACTICE
A weekly writing practice (or content creation of your choice) acts like a river running over a rough stone.
Your stone is your story.
The more you write the more polished your story will become.
WHAT STOPS US FROM BEING CONSISTENT?
First things first. Let’s look at the root causes of our not showing up and sharing our stories.
It is easier to find a solution if you know the real problem.
Your Physical Environment
Are there things in your physical environment that are distracting you from doing the work that you want to do? Are there things you need to remove? Clutter? Noise? Distracting apps?
Conversely, are there things you need to add to your environment? Uplifting music? Calm music? A new keyboard? A better light?
Your Intention
If you are not clear on the value you are adding you may not feel motivated to create content.
Clarify your intention by getting clear on:
Who your audience is and why they will care about what you share
Your key belief and key messages so you know you are on point with what you share
The intention for this specific piece of content, why are you creating this at this time
Your Feelings
I’m a fan of our feelings.
I see feelings as signals, they indicate the direction we want to go in or a direction we want to avoid.
To understand what my feelings are telling me, I use the R.A.I.N. technique by Tara Brach.
I’ve now shared this with several clients who have also shared with me that it has been useful. They’ve been able to move from reactivity caused by unnamed anxiety into strategic storytelling.
R.A.I.N. is an acronym for:
Recognizing when you feel anxious or another strong emotion,
Acknowledging the emotion by naming it,
Investigating what is behind the emotion, what thought, desire or pain needs to be addressed,
Nurture. Take care of yourself. In my world Nurture includes D–decide what to do about the cause of the emotion.
STRATEGIES FOR BECOMING CONSISTENT
Take it step-by-step.
Map out your process, put in practices for getting into flow and managing emotions, assess what is working, make adjustments, find the fun and keep going.
Give yourself a weekly goal – pick one form of communication and commit to doing it every week for 3 months
Find your flow – pay attention to when you have the most energy to create. One of my best tools for getting into flow is The Pause.
Know your objective – who do you want to serve, what do you want to share (you can control your input not the outcome)
Pick your platform – start small, don’t bite off more than you can chew, start one at a time, you can add more later
Pick your categories – Decide on 2-3 topics you want to explore. Decide on how you want to approach your topics depending on the platform you choose. Check out other content creators and put together an approach that inspires you.
Build on what works – even if reactions are low in terms of numbers, take what you see working and lean in on the topics, formats, approaches that work for both you (what do you enjoy doing) and your audience
Investigate your feelings – use R.A.I.N. or another form of inquiry to figure out the intelligence of why you are stopping yourself. Are you out of alignment? Do you need to speak to your audience to better understand what will help them? Do you need to take a writing class to feel more comfortable writing? Do you need to clarify your message or define your message strategy? Check out these tools for managing emotional roadblocks, 15 Strategies for Getting Into Action.
THE FINAL SECRET SAUCE
Show up authentically.
For me, when I finally aligned my content strategy with my business strategy and with an understanding of how I could help my audience, I was finally able to be consistent.
I had to go through my four whys.
Why I was doing this for me personally, why I was doing this for me professionally, why I was doing this for the benefit of those I want to serve and why I was doing this for the world.
Doing the 4 Whys helped me show up authentically.
The strategies above helped me polish both my story and approach.
THE BIG BENEFIT
Writing is not just a way of sharing value and sharing your ideas, it is a way for you to deepening your own understanding about the value of what you are delivering and it will help you discover how you can continue to help those you wish to serve.
In next week’s blog I’m going to talk about How to Find Your Authentic Voice.
In the meantime, try out these seven strategies.
Let me know if you are able to implement this easily or if there are places where you get stuck.
I’m happy to share more resources to help you get unstuck so you can feel more ease sharing your wisdom with the world.