Consistency is the golden thread of a life well-lived and the glue that turns our inspiration into reality, says leadership, personal growth mentor and author of The 5AM Club and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Robin Sharma.

Sharma recently launched an audio mentoring programme titled The Deep Magic of Daily Consistency which is a blend between an audiobook and podcast (available via Apple and Spotify). In the programme. he explains how to achieve small, yet consistent daily improvements that lead to transformative results.

“We can try to install great habits, set goals and have wonderful ambitions, but without consistency, ideas don’t become reality,” Sharma explains.

Although we know we need to be consistent with our goals, people still find it extremely difficult. We asked Sharma why this is.

Why do people struggle with consistency?

“It’s mainly due to broken beliefs. A lot of us have these ideas that we’re not good enough, smart enough, fast enough or able enough to make the changes we want to make.

“Any good positive psychologist will tell you that your personal story determines how you live in the world. Therefore, our daily behaviour reflects our deepest beliefs and if our beliefs are not helpful, then we’re not even going to do the things required to install the new habits or to get the goals done.

“People also surround themselves with too many energy vampires and dream-stealers. This means that every time we say we want to be healthier, save more money, find love, become more powerful, we often share this with a loved one and they laugh or put us down.

“They may tell us to be reasonable or remind us that these things never work. Therefore, we need to clean up who we surround ourselves with.

“The last reason we aren’t consistent is because we want things easy. We now live in a world where we can order food and it’ll be at our front door in 10 minutes. But I would argue that hard is easy and easy is hard. When you do hard things, you will have an easier life. When you do hard workouts, you have easier health. When you read hard books, you have easier thinking. When you choose the easy project, easy work, easy food, you end up with a hard life. Therefore, choosing micro discomfort actually makes you stronger, healthier and happier in the end. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Why do small changes matter?

“Your days are your life in miniature and it’s what you do each day that creates your life. So small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done consistently over time lead to stunning results. It’s not what you do once a year that makes a difference, it’s what you do every day,” Sharma explains.

“It’s because doing these little things like eating slightly better, being a little kinder, doing one uncomfortable thing often, putting your phone down and having a conversation – all of these little acts of optimisation and positivity are so easy to do that we think they won’t work and so often we neglect them.”

How do you push through resistance?

“A quote I love is: a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. Our ego doesn’t like to do difficult things – it wants easy. But our higher self understands that consistency is the mother of mastery,” Sharma says.

“If you look or talk to anyone who’s successful or happy, they’ll tell you that they were persistent and also minimalists in many ways. They did a few small things, they didn’t give up too easily and they just stayed with it.

“So, one of my favourite brain tattoos is all change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. Whenever we try anything new, it’s going to be hard in the beginning and our ego tells you that you’re doing something wrong when you are actually doing something right. If it wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t be valuable. Everything that we now find easy, we once found difficult.

How can we stay consistent?“Number one is do a 30-day consistency challenge. Maybe it’s no sugar, no social media, no complaining, no news. Consistency is like a muscle, so we need to exercise it for it to get stronger.

“Secondly, become boring. If you look at the many great athletes that I mentor, a lot of professional athletes, they do the same things each and every day until they become automatic. It’s called mundanity so be boring, do the same things every day, do the same routines until they become automatic.

“Thirdly, distraction is the enemy of consistency. Don’t be a cyber zombie. Use your technology as a servant and a tool, not as your God.

“Fourth thing I would say is strip out the energy vampires and find an accountability, consistency partner. If you look at any changes that last, it’s done in groups. Therefore, find someone who can champion and encourage you when you feel like giving up.”

Sharma concludes: “Lastly, I would say is keep moving forward when you most feel like quitting because often it’s when we’re at the point of going up that our greatest breakthrough happens. We may feel like waving the white towel of surrender, but if we just continue, amazing things naturally show up.”

What can you expect if you stay consistent?

“Consistency is one of the greatest recipes,” Sharma explains. “It’s one of the greatest pathways into happiness. It’s one of the great ways to become courageous and self-loving. Consistency is not only becoming stronger and installing great habits, a daily routine and results – it’s also the DNA of integrity.

“When you’re consistent, you’re someone who says ‘here are my values. Even if nobody understands them, I’m going to live by these values.’

“That’s a great source of happiness, because when we betray our integrity and we’ve become people that we’re not – we don’t find happiness.

“Therefore to wrap all of this up in a bow, I would say, if you want to be happier, like yourself more and really want your life to work – keep the promises you make to other people but most importantly, keep the promises you make to yourself. As you keep self-promises, you become more consistent, you start to respect yourself more and someone who respects themselves, lives a much greater life.”