When you you are building a habit or implementing a routine, you will inevitably find yourself facing obstacles.

Sometimes these obstacles are legitimate; a life or schedule change suddenly obliterates your morning meditation time. Or perhaps you succumb to an illness just as you were starting to get traction on a consistent workout routine. How about just simply not feeling like doing the thing you have committed yourself to doing?

When you find yourself with less time than you anticipated, or if you find yourself making excuses, don’t give up and postpone your task or habit to another day. Instead, dial back the difficulty to the point it would seem ridiculous to not do that task/habit.

Were you planning to spend 30 minutes reading before bed, but taking care of the kids delayed everything by an hour? Spend just 5 minutes before bed, and focus completely on reading your book. Unable to find time to fit your workout routine in today? Set a 3-minute timer on your phone, and do as many push-ups as possible before the timer goes off.

The point here is to make sure you prioritize consistency.

Once you get started, you may very well push yourself to work harder or to do more. But even if not, you will still consider it a win. You are making some progress in the direction of your goal.

You should strive above all else to maintain and protect consistency, even if you must sacrifice intensity to do it. Focus on consistency and the intensity will come.