Consistency Trumps Passion: The Only Way You Can Attain Mindless Excellence
You have got to find your home.
It is past 10 pm in Nigeria and ideally, I should have published an article earlier.
But this would be my first for the day.
I have not been feeling like writing for a few days now. Still, I have one yet-to-be-published article on New Writers, and another in my draft.
As I reclined on my chair settling in to write, a warm smile swept across my face.
This is my home.
I have not felt this way in a long time.
But today more than ever, after a few days of grumpy writing, I feel God is trying to remind me that I do this because I was made to do this. This is home.
You should find your home too.
Do not get me wrong. It is not always like this, at all. For the past three days, writing has felt more like a chore than a passion. I have had to be very intentional.
Each time I feel like yielding to my feelings I remember this quote by Samuel Smiles,
You are more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action. So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it.
The only way you become mindlessly excellent is by showing up every day, regardless.
Do not trust your feelings. Do not act based on how you feel, if you do you will never get much done.
There are many activities that you should get to without thinking.
Just start.
Do not bother about perfection on days when you can barely get yourself to do what you ought to do.
Consistency trumps perfection. Every day cannot be perfect.
I know we read this a lot and I need this message just as well as you do, but it is the fact.
Home is not a utopian condition where everything just seems to work out seamlessly.
No.
Home is passion mixed with grit, sweat, pain, and determination.
