I write these letters to reflect, gain perspective, and develop my mindset. Musta’s Mixtape, my latest book, is a physical manifestation of this mindset.
It’s also the outcome of my NFT project.
Speaking of NFTs…
I was at VeeConn, an entrepreneurship, web3, and marketing conference hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk, earlier this summer.
This was my third year of attending. Luckily, this time around it was hosted just a few blocks away from where I lived.
I’d take a stroll down to the LA live arena to start the day. Say hello to a few friends. Then look through the app to see the list of stages and events to attend.
From the main stage to side stages, I listened to inspirational stories of entrepreneurs, content creators, side hustlers, and artists.
I heard stories about overcoming tragedy to dealing with the pressures of success.
By the third and final day it became clear to me. Each successful person that had graced the stage had said one thing.
The one thing that helped them succeed was consistency.
There was no magic pill. They just stayed consistent with whatever they pursued.
Is consistency the most important thing for your career and creative goals?
Inconsistent Issues:
A lot of people are addicted to immediate gratification.
That’s why most of us start something and then stop.
We become easily distracted by the new shiny object, in search of that quick dopamine hit, making it hard to make any real progress on what we really want to do.
What you want the most is on the other side of immediate gratification.
It requires patience to build and nurture your skill. This patience is what builds consistency.
If you stay at something long enough, it is bound to work out based on compounding effects.
Now luck, serendipity, plays a role in turning opportunities into reward and some people will not have to work consistently to put themselves in that position.
But most people do.
Finding your way to be consistent increases the surface area for luck and serendipity to happen in your life.
So if there’s one thing you can focus on to bring you closer to your ambitious goals it’s this one thing: consistency.
Consistency gives you leverage.
Consistency is a discipline.
3 Consistency Principles
From June to the end of August this year, I’d wake up on Saturday morning, push myself out of bed, drink my bottle of water, set up my collapsible desk, open up my laptop, play some music on the side, hit “go live” in my streamyard studio.
BOOM!
Live and direct, streaming straight outta Los Angeles. I was online. For 12 weeks straight, I streamed myself editing my book, Musta’s Mixtape.
I did it because people had asked, so how do you write and I’ll say “just write.”
I thought I’d show my process. There was nothing fancy, just my struggling to put words on paper. But the stream served another purpose, it kept me accountable.
It was a personal hack to keep me accountable because the year leading up to that I had been telling myself: “I need to finish this manuscript.” But there was always something else more important.
I needed a forcing factor. Streaming live was it.
You have to find your own little hacks that’s in tune with your rhythm to stay consistent.
Because what works for one person might not work for you. However, there are a few guiding principles that have helped me stay consistent and I see them apparent in different facets of life.
When you build your own vessel for consistency, you will detach from the “shiny object” syndrome, pace yourself with your work, and find the balance you need to achieve your goals.
Here are 3 ways that I do it:
1. Keep a personal score-card
Do it for yourself.
Do it for the process.
When I started drafting the manuscript of my book. I did it all on my phone over a 60-day period, writing each day for at least 15 minutes. There was no reward. Only the people around me knew what I was doing.
Have your own internal scorecard.
Set a challenge for yourself to stay consistent.
During my writing sprint, it wasn’t about whether the story was great or not, it was about never breaking the chain of writing each day.
Set a personal challenge and stick with it.
2. Leverage community
Find people to be consistent with.
Doing stuff on your own is difficult. You can make it less difficult by doing it with others. I spend a lot of my working time at coffee shops and co-working spaces. It’s a little step I take to not be too stuck in what I’m doing.
Being around people who are doing their own work keeps you accountable.
I achieved this online also when I streamed my editing process over those three months. A few people would join in while I was writing just to get some “library hours” in. I also had a writing community, where we’d meet every Wednesday morning on zoom to write together.
It’s easier to go with others.
Build community offline and online to consistent.
3. Ship for accountability
Make sure you ship.
You can always iterate on your process or keep talking about it. But if you want to put something out into the world that people can interact with and you can get feedback, you will need to ship it out.
Have a shipping date keeps you consistent.
When I got on this journey for Musta’s Mixtape, I set up a crowdfunding campaign. I had friends and family contribute to the publishing of the book. I don’t know about you, but that was enough for me to make sure I followed through.
Put your word on the line.
Say what you’re going to do.
Then do it.
Make sure you ship.
Nothing is final.
Everything is feedback.
Build your ship-feedback loop.
For the love of the process..
Consistency increases your opportunities.
It requires patience and a growth mindset.
Build consistency by having your own internal scorecard, leveraging community, and finding accountability through shipping.
You can only do this by falling in love with the process.
Yours truly,
Nifemi
P.S. If you are interested in the manifestation of my personal challenge, you can get it here.
