Up: [[Experiencing Time]] Created: 2025-03-16 I was looking at two notes I have in my vault, wondering if I could merge them into one balanced, moderate viewpoint about the benefits and drawbacks of consistency in thought and practice. I can’t. The corresponding page of quotes betrays me. Five of the seven [[Quotes - Consistency]] are focused on the negatives. Consistency, according to these authors is: contrary to nature, the last refuge of the unimaginative, the hobgoblin of little minds, and the most overrated of all human virtues. There’s something so uninspiring about the word “consistency.” It is a bland, oatmeal word with synonyms like: regularity, free from variation, conformity, and *always* doing something in a similar way. Of course, I do recognize that I am cherrypicking the synonyms that suit how I’ve been feeling since I retired a decade ago. After most of life scheduled with a stopwatch (see [[My History of Time Management]]), I am massively resistant to anything that feels restricting. Words like “consistency,” “discipline,” “productivity,” and “efficiency” are kryptonite to me now. For the past few years I have been proudly proclaiming that I am “making a habit of my inconsistency.” I recently — as in two days ago — realized that I have once again been guilty of wielding my mother of all complexes; the all-or-nothing thinking that believes I either have to be *always* conforming/regular/free from variation or embodying the opposite pole of treating every day as a brand new world. This is stupid. Also aimless, exhausting, ineffective…. Consistency has other, more appealing, synonyms. “Harmony” is a big one as in the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of *harmony of conduct or practice*. Personal integrity is impossible without some consistency of beliefs, thoughts and behaviour. So, it seems, is progress in any creative endeavour without consistent practice. When I look at my own practices, I have several consistent ones: tarot; eating my larger meal at noon and my smaller in the evening, and going to bed within the same time window most nights. The fact that I am not yet, or maybe not ever, consistent in bodywork, art and writing in no way diminishes either the value of my consistent practices or the importance to me of my inconsistent ones.