Dear God,
Thank You for the start of a new year and each new day. I’m grateful to make it this far. I’m grateful that each year including this one is filled with You. I’m excited for what awaits 2024. Help me to stay on track, not compare, and focus. Give me strength to make hard choices and keep making them everyday. Forgive me for my shortcomings, my harsh judgements, my anxiety, my selfishness, and my ignorance. Help me to be shaped by Jesus not by my fears.
Give us all what we need, and knowing You, there will be even more.
Love,
Grace
Hi! I wanted to welcome you to my blog because I’m not sure if we’re new friends, you’re a curious passerby who I’m mutuals with on Instagram, or a longtime friend. I started this blog in the Pandemic times, COVID hit us hard, and with all that time I decided to pursue a dream of mine: writing. I didn’t necessarily want to write a blog? But I just wanted to write and share (I guess that’s a blog..).
In my previous blog about welcoming the new year, I talked about choosing purpose over potential, the power of grace, and what I’m taking into 2024. Along this course, I’ve actually been having a tradition of 3 years strong with my best friend Liz. It’s a “word of the year” that encapsulates the heart and mindset I’m hoping to cultivate for the year.
2022 was “Legacy”. What would I leave behind? What kind of impact did I want to make on others? What would matter at the end of the day? Those were the questions I grappled with that year.
2023 was “Contentment”. What false idols were hiding in my heart? Why did I feel the need to be “up to par” with self-imposed standards? What if I just decided to be happy -- just me and Jesus? I came to new heights of peace. Being okay with not being the best or smartest or trying to be somebody. Intentional appreciation of my life was born and continues to blooms.
2024…dun dun dun...is the year of “Consistency”!
I know, I know, consistency isn’t very flashy. It’s not like “Surrender” or “Redemption” but I found it swirling in my thoughts as December came to a close. A lot of it came from preparing (or actually, NOT preparing) for boards. I would study sometimes. When it was a good time or when I was filled with fear-based adrenaline because the exam is $1.5k, part of my license, and just overall required for my chosen career path.
There’s something so unique about preparing for a test that asks you to recall the past 3 years of training you’ve undergone. Ask me what I ate for dinner yesterday, and I’ll blank. There’s a saying about the board exam, it’s not a test of knowledge but preparation. It’s whittle away day by day at a massive textbook. It’s deciding that brunch will have to wait because you have flashcards you haven’t looked over. It’s not about balance actually.
I think striving for balance isn’t what’s best for me. A balanced life where I do everything I want to do equally is not helpful to my goals. I actually need to buckle down and hit the books for hours to give myself a fair shot at passing the first time (God willing). It’s not always going to be like this and the better I allow for imbalance the better I can get back to living a life I prefer to live.
Consistency kicks in because it’s just what you do day in and day out. It’s not based on my mood, the weather, what my friends are doing, or if my midterm is coming up. It’s what I make myself do everyday regardless of my circumstances. Obviously, if I was in the ER or a death in the family occurs, I’ll give myself all the time and space I need. But for everyday life, there’s no reason to miss the steady pace.
Life has surprises, and I think that’s what I attribute to consistency: making space for issues and planning for the unplannable. It’s a strange concept, but I think a good example of it goes with my midterms. When midterms come up, all you want to do is bury your head in the sand of whatever material it’s covering. It’s a time when you should purposely unbalance your life to achieve your goal. For me, I might not watch the lectures that week that don’t cover the material that’s not on my exam until later. I might cut down on time I spend doom scrolling Tiktok or add a couple refills of tea. However, there should be things that I do not give up on doing for the sake of my exam like studying for the boards, showering, eating, sleeping, church, and Bible study.
I won’t be perfect, but they are integral parts of my life that I will not skimp over as unbalanced as my life may be. Honestly, if what makes or breaks my scores is if I do give up on everything else in my life, then I need to seriously reconsider how I go about doing things. I might not be the 1st percentile, but I don’t need to be. I want to do well, and I want to value consistency more than I want to value a metric. If I mess up or don’t adhere to my plans perfectly, that’s fine. There is so much grace for me and for you, but that’s not a reason for tomorrow to be the same.
I am saying all these things as a struggling inconsistent person. I really struggle, I do, but God has been pushing me to be someone who keeps to their goals and doesn’t let circumstances run their life.
How to be Consistent?
Well, now that I’ve shared about my word of the year and what’s going on in my mind, I think consistency is very hard. For boards, I wanted to go over how I push for consistency in my life and make it easier (not easy) to keep going everyday!
Have a small goal you must achieve everyday
I think I’m totally a “check mark” girl which basically means I love making a to do list and physically being able to check off that I completed an assignment! So this means that I need a metric in which I can say I completed my goals.
In one of my boards textbooks there are about 694 pages of material that need to be covered, personally my goal is to get this done by February 10th. I take the pages I’ve done minused from the 694 and divide that number by the days until Feb 10th. My “must achieve” goals are those number of pages and the corresponding videos!
If I want to do more, I am always welcomed to, however that’s my minimum. If I have a busy day I better do it on the bus, in between bites of dinner, or even forgo sleep. I know it’s not the most healthy but it’s not often and it motivates me to do my work earlier for next time!
Have accountability
I think knowing that someone else knows you have goals you plan to reach is incredibly helpful. Honestly, I prefer telling my non-graduate school friends? I think there can be some comparison that comes with telling your friends because what if you’re further along than them or you’re much farther behind. They’re not your goal, your goal is your goal, and if it works for you then that’s what you should do.
Talking to this friend or person in your life about the work you’ve accomplished (give yourself the greenest check mark) will make you feel more excited about telling them about the next day where you’ll do the same! Encouraging one another is great when you can support their goals too.
Make a change when it’s not going well
If I’m not reaching my small goal everyday, something is wrong. I have realized this again and again that ambition is not my friend. Shoot for the moon and I might end up flat on my face. I prefer smaller goals I can achieve daily over big, unattainable goals that I consistently can’t keep up with.
I had to change my idea on how I wanted to study not because it didn’t work but because it wasn’t efficient enough to meet my goals
It was a difficult truth to accept I had been doing things in a way that wasn’t working. I could either decide to double down or to turn and try a new direction. I don’t think I needed to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but I needed to figure out ways that would allow me to reach my goals by trying something new!
Be okay with days where you didn’t reach your goals
I think the temptation of having a day where you didn’t reach your goals and make yourself make up for it tomorrow! Like if you scheduled a 30 minute workout, you’ll promise to make up for it with an hour long weight lifting session the next day.
That’s where I think I lose my steam under surmounting difficulty and unattainable goals. I use my goals as a punishment rather than a guide to follow. Sick days, emotional moments, and family emergencies happen OR you just wanted to spend time with your family, friends, or partner and that’s really what you needed. I think that’s where we go wrong in using our humanity and healthy desire to take a break, relax, and recharge to punish our future selves.
Don’t use moments of inconsistency to punish yourself when you are consistent.
Instead, I think it’s a reset to achieve your goal again for the next time or next day. It can renew me to get back into studying after a good workout or playing with my dog more than trucking along with hours of studying. I might want to increase that day’s pages but if I hit my goal, I am not required and nor will I feel bad for stopping. There are some days where I feel extra productive, and if I end up using those days to study more then that’s great but it’s not a whip I beat myself with for moments of happiness or rest.
These 4 little tidbit tips I hope can shape your life whether its for your health, your relationships, your goals, your own boards studying, or your life. I’m honestly only two weeks into this year, so what do I know really? But it’s my personal hope and prayer that consistency, preservation, and God will carry me to where I need to go -- NOT perfection.
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