I can’t believe I’ve been writing this letter for 100 consecutive weeks.
About two years ago, I sat down at my desk wondering: “what should I write about?”
I fumbled around and wrote one of my first letters about how the brain processes information.
Why?
Because it was the topic of the book I was reading at the time.
I had no clue what I was doing.
I followed a similar process. Read and then write. I wrote about a wide array of topics from psychology to dopamine to motivation to crypto to AI to writing.
All over the place.
But then as I sat down on Monday to begin writing this 100th letter, I knew exactly what to write – Consistency!!!
Because even if my topics along the way twisted and weaved like Steph Curry in the paint, one thing that rang through is the persistence in writing this letter each week.
Sometimes clarity just comes from figuring it out, consistently.
The Consistent Struggle:
Most people don’t have clarity to start.
When they do start, they don’t stick with it. This leaves them in a loop of confused rumination. They end up doing the ONE thing that would leave them there – more thinking.
Reminds me of the quote I recently came across: “When all you do is think, you only think about thoughts.”
One day, a new idea with no action.
Next day, the same idea with different words.
The week after, more fancy words to explain what you would have done.
Years past and you still haven’t started. Ò má se ò.
This has happened to me many times.
I should have started my substack newsletter when a friend told me about it in 2019. I wrote my first post and stopped.
No progress.
The reality is that there is no clarity without action. The main thing that gives direction is feedback.
To get feedback, you have to share your work.
To share your work, you have to create tangible work that can be shared.
To create work, you just have to start.
Yes…you might look stupid.
But you will have something that people can interact with.
With this newsletter, I’ve gotten replies, conversation, and responses to surveys that have helped me narrow in on the field of value that I provide through writing.
The reality is that I’m just figuring it out.
Most people that seem like they know what they are doing are just figuring out too. The ones that create and achieve their goals just happen to be persistent and adaptive.
Consistency Lessons From 100 Weeks of Writing
I’ve been publishing a post every single day on LinkedIn for almost a year now. Why?
Is it to go viral? No.
I use it to learn what resonates and build my communication and distribution skills. But more importantly, is what happens behind the scenes. I’m learning what it takes to be consistent by developing a system that makes it easy to post each day.
When you realize that consistency is built on the back of little action and systems, you’ll stop waiting to start.
When you build a consistent mindset, you’ll be able to show up to do the work, detach from the external validation, and figure it out along the way.
Here are 5 things I’ve learned from writing this letter over 100 consecutive weeks.
1. Choose a small project
Start small.
In January 2023, I sent out an email to a small list of people – friends and family. I made a simple request: “Do you mind if I send you a weekly newsletter?”
Most people didn’t respond. More importantly, no one said no (great result). That’s where it all started. The week after, I sent my first newsletter.
I decided to start with a small project. “Send a newsletter to your friends every week.” Along the way, I’ve added more people, building on the tiny project.
Choose the smallest project you can start.
2. Overcome resistance
Resistance will do anything in its power to stop you from doing your job.
I wrote an entire letter here about resistance. According to Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, resistance is the tiny veil between your “unlived life” within and the life you’re living now. It shows up in many forms but the most common are distractions, procrastination, self-doubt, overthinking, and perfectionism.
Have you ever wanted to do something and then a wave of “something” hits that says “ehhn, just do it tomorrow.”
Don’t listen o. That’s that muthamucka called Resistance.
I believe this friction is the biggest challenge for people. Resistance is an equal opportunity employer that doesn’t discriminate. The best way to overcome it is to recognize it’s there and then use it to your advantage.
Resistance has one singular goal: To pull you away from what you truly want to do. So when you feel it, just go the opposite direction for a few minutes. That’s it.
Resistance never disappears.
Learn to deal with it.
3. Have a shipping date
It’s easy to talk about doing something with no end in mind.
One of the things that has helped me stay consistent with this newsletter is a weekly deadline. It doesn’t matter if I haven’t written anything by Thursday. No one cares about the excuses. Time waits for no one. Saturday morning will always roll around. I have to ship.
I’ve noticed this same deadline helped with publishing my books and my business. When people want to do a creative act or entrepreneurial venture, they don’t use deadlines to their advantage.
This causes delays.
You have to put a shipping date to your work, so you can be done.
Stay accountable with deadlines.
4. Free perfection (abeg just free it, fam)
When you have deadlines, you don’t have time to be perfect.
Most people are concerned about what he or she would think about you. Most of the time, it’s your ego holding on for dear life. No one is perfect.
Perfect is boring.
Get out of your head.
Prioritize practice and feedback over perfection.
5. Develop a system
Consistency is less about the output and more about learning the process.
When I started writing this newsletter, I started by taking notes, and then accumulating those notes into a narrative. Then sitting down to edit. The first month, easily took close to 8 hours over the 5 working days of the week.
Over time, I chipped away at that process.
I broke the process down into:
- Choosing (Mon)
- Planning (Tue)
- Drafting (Wed)
- Editing and publishing (Thur)
Each day of the week, I put this on my to-do list and dedicated 20 minutes in the morning to writing before getting to work.
I’ve cut the process down to about 90 minutes total in the week.
Consistency is more of an internal process of developing a system that works for you.
My drive is process-oriented. It has become: “How quickly can I put down valuable and engaging ideas on paper (screen) with ease.”
Keep your own internal scorecard.
Forget how the external world is measuring you.
Focus on the process and develop your own system to measure yourself against.
Consistency is a mindset
Everyone is consistent.
Some are consistent at doing what they want.
Others are consistent at doing what they need.
It all starts with intention.
As you figure it out, start with a small project, understand the ever-present battle with resistance, use deadlines to keep you accountable, remember that perfection is boring, and develop your own system to measure yourself against.
I hope you can find a little project to be consistent with in 2025.
Yours truly,
Nifemi
P.S. If you read this far, can you reply with one thing you’ve liked about my newsletters and one thing you’d like to be consistent with next year?
