The practice of repetition and consistency is paradoxically the greatest tool for success and the quickest road to breakdown.
What I mean by that is this: Adherence to a discipline is easy when we see how our daily actions lead us towards our goals. We can feel ourselves moving closer to a desired outcome, and that daily marginal progress keeps our minds sharp and our energy high. We’re aware of how each task affects another, and the big picture is painted clearly in our minds.
The trouble arises when that desired outcome fades out of sight, changes, or we no longer know what we want. At that point, the disciplined practice that kept us motivated for so long is now the demise of us. No longer knowing why we do what we do, repetition turns to boredom and consistency puts life on repeat. Nothing new and nothing exciting.
It would be easy to say that one should simply never lose sight of their goals, but life doesn’t always play out that way.
The realization we need to come to is that our happiness and fulfillment cannot exist and be contingent on the achievement of goals. This is because reaching a goal never gives the same satisfaction that we thought it would, but also because it can be an incredibly slow process of getting to those goals, and a process that happens to be ultra susceptible to external influence.
To really make the most of it all, we need to make happiness and satisfaction our number one priority every waking day. Still working towards our larger goals, yes, but taking the time to do the things that truly provide meaning. The adrenaline and motivation we get from chasing goals will only last so long, but a deep love and passion for life will get you through any situation if you want it to.
“If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.”
— Anthony de Mello