Consistency is the key
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December and January are exciting months. For most people, it's a time to reflect on what they achieved and to plan what they want next. That's no different for me.
I started this year thinking about all the flaws I have. The list was big, but one topic that came up constantly was that I'm a very intense person. When I have an idea, I stop everything and start executing it as fast as I can.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Creating things makes me happy - it's part of who I am. But as you know, anything in excess generates side effects. For me, this was affecting my sleep, my diet, and my ability to focus on what really matters.
It was clear that I needed to make some changes, so in January, I decided to pick a theme for my entire year - consistency.
Side Projects
I always loved to create things for developers; that was my safe zone. But this year, I tried to challenge myself to create something for the consumer market and build a native mobile app, something I've never done before.
As I said before, I'm an intense person, so in less than three weeks, I already had a MVP launched on both App Store and Play Store. The challenge here was to keep the momentum going.
I had forced myself to work a few hours every day instead of a few days for long hours. That was really hard, there were some days when I just wanted to keep going, but I reminded myself to stop and go to sleep.
The result - the app went from 0 to 5,694 downloads (3,313 App Store / 2,380 Play Store). From those downloads, I was able to capture 2,155 registered users. More importantly, I was able to release 76 versions on each platform, an average of 6 releases per month.
Day to day Job
This year I completed seven years working at Liferay. In tech land, this looks like an eternity, but it feels like it's just the beginning.
We had so many challenges that I don't even know where to start, but if I could pick, I'd say that saying goodbye to WeDeploy was the hardest one.
Discontinuing a product that you created is hard, but we knew this was the right thing to do. Once again, consistency is what made things easier.
This time it was not about consistency in terms of personal habits; it was consistency in terms of decision-making.
We knew that DXP Cloud had a much bigger chance to succeed. Looking at the numbers now, I can say it was the best decision we could have made.
Personal Health
People say you should never start a gym membership at the beginning of the year. Well, that's precisely what I did. The problem is that I always hated gyms, I tried many different times, and sooner or later I just stopped going.
I heard that CrossFit was different, so I decided to give it a try. I also started to run, something I never really liked to do. However, my behavior towards them were completely different than other times. Here's what changed:
- When to go: I used to go exercise during the night. If I had a more stressful day, the first thing I'd do was skipping workout. Instead, I tried to go at 6 am, before my day started for real. I had no excuse anymore, and that was liberating.
- What to expect: once you start going more often, your instant-gratification mind starts to ask you: "Where's the result? Where's the result?". The thing is, it takes time to see any change in your body. To solve this, I try to shut up my brain and say to myself: "Just trust the process, just trust the process."
- What to share: for months, I didn't say a thing about my exercise routine. I could feel a complete change in my lifestyle, but I was trying to avoid telling people about that. The reason is that when you externalize a goal, we think we have accomplished already. A few months later, when I noticed that it was already part of my routine, I shared with friends what I was doing.
The result - I went from 185.6 lbs (84.2 kg) body weight to 164.5 lbs (74.6 kg).
Your turn
I hope this article inspired you to focus on consistency, as well.
Life is a marathon, and the only way to get to the finish line in a healthy and successful way is to be consistent.
Working hard is just one part of the puzzle.