Staying consistent with habits is hard. We start off with the best of intentions, but often those intentions are completely unrealistic. We tend to have this all-or-nothing approach – if we’re not doing it 100% perfect, 100% of the time, it doesn’t count. If we skip a day or can’t do it to full capacity, we think the whole thing is a wash and what’s the point?

What if we allowed ourselves a little more flexibility? What if we accounted for the fact that we’re humans and not robots? Mood, energy, time and just LIFE have to factor in – how we show up on any given day can be different.

Now, that doesn’t mean we have to be held hostage by our feelings. This consistency hack is an easy way to allow for both your humanness and your desire to be grounded in healthy habits to coexist.

So, what is it? It’s what I call the Gold, Silver, Bronze Method.

Here’s how it works;

You have a habit you want to stick to and you set yourself Gold, Silver and Bronze variant levels of that habit to allow some flexibility and flow.

For example, let’s say, you want to stick to a habit of reading every day.

In an ideal world, when you’re firing on all cylinders and everything is flowing right in your day, you want to read 20 pages. Fabulous! Let’s call that your GOLD standard. That’s the ideal that you’re aiming for.

But what about when you’re travelling, or have to work late or your schedule is all out of whack? It can feel unachievable to hit your 20 page target when you’re in a time crunch. OK, so, let’s adapt. Maybe on a day like that, 10 pages is a more realistic goal. Great! On those days, 10 pages is your SILVER standard.

And then what about those days when everything has gone to shit? Your tired, overwhelmed, running behind on everything you need to do – listen, we all have those days. Well, even on your worst day, you could probably read two pages, right? Awesome! So, on bad days, reading two pages is your BRONZE standard.

You see? When your allow yourself some flexibility, whether you’re having a good day or a bad day, you’re still getting a medal, you’re still making it on the podium, you’re still winning!

Sure, you’ll have days when you don’t want to do your habit at all, but I find the advice James Clear gives in his book Atomic Habits to be a great rule of thumb; just don’t skip more than two days in a row.

Once I applied the GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE method to my habits, it made things far more achievable, I started to find my flow and felt so much more grounded knowing I was sticking to the commitments I made to myself.

Try it for yourself and enjoy your habit glow up!