Most of my life, I’ve struggled with being consistent with good habits and keeping up with my work.
If you’re a heart-based business owner or intuitive worker, maybe you can relate — feeling the resistance to doing certain important things, and letting hour after hour, day after day, pass.
I used to be devastated when I realized that I was the one standing in my own way. I had all these dreams and visions, but my lack of discipline made them feel impossible. I thought I was unchangeable.
Thankfully, I was wrong about that.
Growing up, I was very shy. And I had a stuttering problem. We immigrated from Taiwan to the US when I was just at 6 years young. I was trying to learn one language (Mandarin Chinese) and now I had to learn a whole new language (English).
In school, speaking in front of people terrified me. I’d rather do anything else in the world. But now, decades later? Give me a crowd and I’ll happily speak!
The same transformation happened with video. My first video was in 2009, and I hated how I looked and sounded so much, that I swore off video forever! It took encouragement from colleagues to try again. And now? Being on video feels so natural that I’ve uploaded more than 2,000 videos! See: George Kao YouTube
I’ve been implementing joyful productivity for more than 15 years now. About three to five years in, something remarkable happened. I started feeling like I was becoming a different person. It was both beautiful and surprising, because I didn’t realize how much I could change…
The Power of Practice
Here’s what I’ve learned: the human mind and spirit are incredibly neuroplastic. We can activate potentials way beyond what we’re currently living. But it takes practice. Again and again and again.
Not just three weeks like some habit books claim. Not even the 67 days that research suggests for tiny habits. Changing ourselves at a core level takes years.
What changed for me? Consistency of practice led to skillfulness, and skillfulness led to results. Without consistency, you can’t develop skillfulness. Without skillfulness, results either require massive willpower (not sustainable) or they’re completely haphazard (not good for income!). But when you’re skillful, results come naturally.
Think about your own life. Where are you a different person than you were 10 years ago? Maybe you were forced into practice, like becoming a parent, or learning social media. The point is — practice changed you.
Again:
Consistency leads to skillfulness.
Skillfulness leads to results.
The Three Components of Consistency
So how do we actually become consistent? There are three major components:
1. Calendaring and Setting Boundaries
First, calendaring and setting boundaries. You need to plan well. If you want to write consistently, experiment to find your best time of day. Then protect that time. Close the door. Tell everyone you’re unavailable. I use Focusmate for several hours a day.
2. Normalizing Discomfort
Second, normalize the discomfort of getting into work. Instead of waiting for flow and inspiration, practice generating flow!
Here’s something crucial: boredom, anxiety, and resistance are normal for expert creators. Did you think feeling resistance meant your spirit guides were telling you not to do something? Maybe. But also maybe it’s your monkey mind.
For years, I’ve rebelled against my resistance. When I don’t feel like doing something, I say “Watch me do it anyway!” Maybe I’ve trained the universe to give way when I set an intention and move through resistance.
There’s an illusion among heart-based people that flow should happen on its own. That work should be light and fun at the beginning. That’s the big mistake. Important work isn’t supposed to be light and fun at the beginning. It’s supposed to be light and fun after you move through the initial resistance and generate flow. Sometimes, it takes me 15 minutes (sometimes, 30 minutes or more) of start-and-stop writing before I find my way through and start having fun and experiencing flow.
My cat demonstrates this perfectly. When she wants the bed, she gets it. No hesitation. She moves through any resistance.
How do we generate flow? You need to discover your own process. Some people dance. Some light candles. Some journal. I do something called an energy reboot that takes 20 seconds.
Don’t create a crutch like “I need to walk three hours in the woods before I can write.” Unless you can build that into your daily life, find something quicker! After my 20-second energy reboot, I might still struggle for five to ten minutes. So I do another energy reboot. Then I struggle less. Sometimes I do an energy reboot every five minutes until I’ve moved through the resistance and found my flow.
Watch any of my videos. The beginning energy is never the same as the middle or end. I generate flow while I’m in it!
3. Working Lightly and Letting Go
The third component of consistency is working lightly. Post, publish, launch, send — sooner than you’d like. See the bigger picture of your journey as a whole.
Always practice working lightly and sustainably, rather than with excessive intensity.
The Real Reward
Consider this — you as a creator are part of a worldwide community of creators. You have fellow creators who are also practicing moving through resistance every day.
We consistent creators normalize discomfort at the beginning of our creative process.
Instead of delayed gratification, practice finding reward in every hour of creating. I feel proud every time I finish writing because at the beginning, I couldn’t imagine writing more than five words on a blank page. By the end of the hour, something exists. Every time it feels like a miracle!
The universe gives way when you become the creator of your life. When you set an intention and move through resistance, you’re not at the mercy of random inspiration. You’re planning, using your brilliant mind, marrying left and right brain, mind and heart.
Every important task, every project that adds value, has resistance in the first 5 to 30 minutes. Sometimes 45 minutes. The more you practice, the less time it takes to move through that resistance.
The Adventure of Practice
This is the adventure: normalizing creative discomfort, and discovering that consistency is about practice. Years of practice.
You can change dramatically. I’m living proof. From a stuttering, shy person who avoided cameras to someone who speaks and creates with ease. Not because I became someone else, but because I practiced being my true Self, consistently, through all the resistance.
That’s the real secret. Not waiting for the perfect moment or the right feeling. Just showing up, practicing moving through creative discomfort, and working lightly. Again, and again, and again.
I’m with you in this journey!
This really resonates – especially not waiting for flow to show up. I really like your energy reboots – they’re similar to the energy resets I teach. What I’ve found is it works best for me when I train my state before resistance shows up – otherwise, I end up letting resistance lead. And when that happens, I often reinforce the very patterns I’m trying to change.
Like when I sit down to write while feeling scattered or anxious – if I wait until I’m already in that state to shift, I’m subtly teaching myself that resistance comes first. Over time, that wires in “feel off first, then try to recover,” instead of “train clarity first, then create from there.” And the more I notice that pattern as it’s happening, the more clearly I see why training before resistance is what actually rewires it.
Your messages always have a way of finding me when I need them, George. Thank for your this very inspiring post. I love the reframe of resistance and showing up and practicing creating your flow instead of waiting for it to strike!