I’ve noticed that if you’re trying to make a living through writing, this topic of being committed and consistent always comes up.
Recently, I read a comment in response to an article and this writer was unsure if he could reach his goals because he thought he lacked commitment and consistency.
While I’m not sure what the exact circumstances are, I did have some thoughts about staying committed and consistent with your writing. So here they are.
First off, let’s get clear about what commitment and consistency even mean.
Oxford dictionary defines commitment as,
“the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.”
Dedication is the key thing when it comes to being committed to something or someone.
Here’s how consistency is defined,
“acting or done in the same way over time, especially so as to be fair or accurate.”
The key phrase here being ‘over time’.
So being committed and consistent with your writing simply means you stay on your path of writing over time.
I discovered and started writing on Medium in 2018. Then I stopped in 2019. I shared more about why I stopped here. I resumed writing on Medium in August 2022 casually and intermittently and more seriously in September 2023.
Does that mean I lack commitment to writing because I had a break in between? I don’t think so. It just meant life happened, and last I checked, if you’re a human being reading this, you probably have life happening all the time too!
Maybe your self-judgement that you lack commitment and consistency is just you being too hard on yourself. Who says commitment and consistency has to be measured in terms of days? Or weeks or months? That’s the frequency in which you write. Again, something that can be adjusted depending on the season of life you’re in.
