“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.”
Aldous Huxley
A lot of what humans do each day is a striving for consistency. For example, if you’re building things, you want them to be consistently good so that you’ll be able to sell them and continue to do what you like. If you’re working in a job just trying to pay the bills, you’re trying for some kind of consistency to remain employed. If you’re at home with your kids, you’re trying to be consistent in your mood and temperament to be a good role model. And avoid losing your mind.
It feels like I’ve been somewhat inconsistent lately (not just with blogging) and questioning my reasons for consistency and the routines I’ve built up to encourage it.
I mean, on a certain level, I get it. On one hand, it’s good to be able to do the same things over and over again with a degree of surety that things will turn out the same. But on the other hand, some of the most interesting discoveries and progressive leaps forward have come out of inconsistency and mistakes. And then on then third hand that’d come in handy while assembling furniture and carrying groceries but isn’t really there, one needs to have some kind of “normal” pattern for an aberration to emerge, right?
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well shucks Ralph, why don’t you say what you really mean?
So maybe it comes down to whether we’re pursuing consistency and habit for foolish, or even manic, reasons. Or perhaps fears of insecurity?
I’ve been finding a lot of my tricks and hacks lately haven’t been working quite as well as they used to. Maybe these things run their course or perhaps it’s something to do with being in the middle of a global pandemic. You know, the little things in life.
Guess it’s an opportunity to examine things and see whether or not I’ve got a couple hobgoblins hanging out with the bats in my belfry?
Or, I could go have Cheetos for breakfast…