Making the right choice once is easy. But when faced with repeated stressors in life, we can find our willpower used up, and then we make the easy choice, which is not always the right choice. This means that making the right choice more than once is hard.

For example, after a busy and harried day at work, you opt for fast food instead of cooking a healthy homemade meal. Another example is after a long day at work, you skip going to the gym because you are too tired. Or maybe you had a late night and skip going to the gym first thing in the morning before work.

If we don’t always make the right choices in life, then we can be inconsistent in following the strategies and plans we create for ourselves. We are ambitious and we set goals for ourselves, but if we don’t consistently follow through on those plans and use those strategies, then we don’t get the results we desire.

I believe that consistency is key. This means consistently making the right choice in life every time we are faced with a difficult or stressful decision. If you are not consistent, then people cannot rely on you, and you cannot rely on yourself. Instead, if you do consistently make the right choice, instead of the easy or obvious choice, you can rely on yourself, and other people can learn to rely on you as well.

I believe that being consistent in your actions and always making the right choice can drastically improve your life and your effectiveness. Author Darren Hardy wrote a book called “The Compound Effect”. This book is about being disciplined and making the right choices consistently over time. Doing this causes positive changes in your life that compound over time. This can lead to increased success and can yield the results you most want in life. On the flip side, Darren Hardy says that the wrong choices repeated over time can compound to yield negative results in your life.

If you are inconsistent in following the strategies that you devise for achieving your goals, then you won’t be able to rely on yourself and you won’t be able to achieve those goals. Take me for example. More than a year ago I was successfully following the ketogenic diet and losing weight. I was consistent in my eating habits and was choosing healthy keto meals over junk food and less healthy food choices. This helped me get down from a weight of 330 pounds to 217 pounds.

However, after reaching 217 pounds I stopped being consistent in my efforts and started making the easy choice more often than the right choice. This caused me to regain some of the weight I lost, and I am back up above 250 pounds. To use Darren Hardy’s words, you could say that the compound effect was working against me. By opting to make the easy choice more often than the right choice, my choices were compounding over time to yield increased weight. This is the negative side of the compound effect, and it means I was consistently making the wrong choices.

Now consider a different aspect of my life: my blog. This is an area where I consistently follow my plan and write a blog article once a month. More recently, I increased my blogging frequency to once a week, and I have been consistently following this plan.

Each week I always schedule the writing of my blog article on a Saturday. I also consistently publish my blog articles on my website and on Facebook and LinkedIn. I don’t know how many people read my blog, but I consistently follow through on my plans and I have been successfully blogging for more than a year.

Another area where consistency has improved my life is in my daily, weekly, and monthly planning habits. When I first tried to do daily action plans several years ago, I didn’t consistently follow through on my plans, and I often ended up with incomplete action items at the end of every day. This was demotivating and discouraging because I was not consistently following through on my plans.

However, 21 months ago I committed to following daily action plans and setting weekly and monthly goals. And I have been consistently following this practice every day now for these past 21 months. What this has done for me is that every day I know the action items I have committed to completing, and I follow through on completing those action items every day. I also consistently follow through on achieving the weekly and monthly objectives I set for myself each week and each month. This has become an important system I use in my life.

At the end of every week and every month I can look back at everything I have accomplished, and I can mark my weekly and monthly objectives as successfully completed. This has increased my self confidence and motivation. It has also helped me to make progress on my goals and fulfill my responsibilities. It has also helped me to rely on myself and to be more reliable to other people.

Making the right choice often requires willpower. If you have enough willpower, it can be easy to make the right choice. If you use up your willpower, it easy to make the easy choice, which is not always the right choice.

I recently read a book that suggested that willpower is only a limited resource if you believe that it is. If you change your belief about willpower and see it as an unlimited resource, then it can be easier to always make the right choice, even when you are tired or burned out.

Conclusion

Remember that making the right choice once is easy, but consistently making the right choice every time can be hard. Having the discipline to always make the right choice in your life can transform your life for the better. This means that positive choices made consistently over time can compound to produce the results you want in life.

I also came across the idea that willpower is only limited if you believe that it is. You can throw out this belief and see willpower as an unlimited resource. Then it is much easier to always make the right choice consistently over time, even when you are tired or burned out.

I encourage you to remember that consistency is key. Keep making the right choices, instead of the easy and obvious choices, and you will be amazed at the results you get in life. Your positive choices will compound over time, and you will be amazed at what you can achieve.