Consistency Sucks

I hate the word consistency

Or to be more accurate:

I hate it when we're told we need to be consistent.

Composition teachers, business coaches, society, wellness practitioners: 'Always be consistent!'

'Consistency is key'

'Sit down every day and write'

'If you're not consistent, then you'll fail (and if you don't fail, you're a fluke)'

It feels like a stick to beat us over the head with.

Consistency is touted as like a quick fix. Be consistent and you'll succeed!

This doesn't work for me (and many others).

For starters, my beautiful AuDHD brain short-circuits when I try to attempt to stick at a routine (my goodness, if only I'd known this 20 years ago!).

I tried and I tried hard. 

(And while trying hard, I burnt out, withdrew, procrastinated, self-sabotaged, gave up, lost my creativity and my drive, overfaced myself, had a nervous breakdown, jumped from plan to plan... )

But more recently I had the realisation that being consistent looks, feels and is different for each person - and having teachers and coaches tell us that our sort of consistency is wrong is just... wrong.

No, I may not sit and write music every day for three hours (not one person I know managed that during uni, despite it being the 'goal')...

... but I do know that if I'm not actively creating, I'm thinking about creating, pondering, exploring silently/ collaboratively/ excitedly.

I am consistent without being productive

No, I may not journal every day and religiously track my menstrual cycle

... but I do know that I have committed to learning ancestral knowledge, that would have been passed to me by a grandmother, from my teacher, embracing aural wisdom, rather than quick fix actions.

I am consistent without being active

No, I am not a saint who gets everything right in parenting, relationship-ing, business-ing, anti-oppression and composing etc.

... but I know that when I'm a grumpy f*cker, I will apologise and work to make things right.

I am consistent in my cycle of understand of myself and others. I am consistent without being perfect.

No, I'm not exceptional at any one thing (Jack of all trades, hello!)

... but I do know that I am always creating, whether composing, sewing, crocheting, singing, writing, dancing, swimming, meditating, etc. 

I am consistent to my own abilities and talents.

As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, living cyclically has revolutionised my creativity.

It's because I'm not fighting with this fake idea of who I should be, imposed on me because of someone else's success story.

I'm recognising my own cycles of 'consistency' (argh), my own patterns (that's better!), my own moments of rest, or of rage, of prolific creation or downtime content musings.

If you are experiencing creative burnout or creative block, let's see if I can help.

I've reopened my teaching practice, working with creatives struggling with burnout and creative block.

In order to make it more accessible, I've changed my booking and pricing structures:

- Book one or a block of sessions

- Up to three sessions a month

- £80 per hour

- The first three sessions booked are 'pay-what-you-can' (minimum £50)