Word of the year: Consistency
Photo by Clarissa Watson on Unsplash
Towards the end of 2024, I was challenged by a coach of mine to pick a word, a single word that would capture and express how I was going to show up for myself and others in 2025. In the moment, the exercise felt a bit silly to me. How was a word going to change what I do or how I do it? But I decided to play along. I started to think about what I liked and didn’t like about how I had been approaching my work, and about how I was leading my life in general. Over the years, I had built some pretty good habits in many areas of my life. But what I realized was that they didn’t always last. I would make steady progress towards my work goals for a few weeks, and then I would become deeply unproductive. I would commit to strength training for a month or two, and then it would be pizza and naps (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). I would get energized to write a blog post for this website and then it would sit dormant for far too long. Things would go awry, and although I would always get it back on track, it felt like it took so much effort to do so. I hated that feeling. What I was lacking, and what became my word for 2025, was consistency.
Choosing a word is one thing. It’s cute. But then the question becomes, what am I going to do with it? It’s a mantra I can point to, but how do I claim it as my own? Consistency requires not just being intentional with your time, but being intentional with your time over time. I started to map out what that would look like. For me, that looked like writing down my work goals for each month, and blocking off time each week in my calendar to specifically work on those goals. (Not just notes in my phone, but actual writing on an actual wall calendar hanging near my desk.) That looked like getting a strength training plan that just tells me what to do and when to do it, so I didn’t over-train and burn out (thanks, Peloton!). That looked like carving out time every Sunday morning—with a backdrop of jazz music, a scented candle, and some coffee—to write these posts.
Did I execute the plan perfectly? Of course not. For instance, some weeks, life got in the way, and I didn’t end up writing a blog post. But, I had been so consistent in previous weeks, that I had banked a few extra weeks’ worth of posts. Through consistent effort, I put myself in a position where I could afford to not write one week, and yet still have a weekly blog that went up. And, the lesson I learned was that consistency is incredibly motivating. When you have a streak going, you want to keep it going. When things started to go awry, I immediately started looking ahead to plan for how and when I could get back on track, instead of just fooling myself that it would all just magically correct itself one day in the future.
I found that consistency also helps me be less anxious. If I am continually and mindfully building in pockets of time to make small, but consistent, progress on a task or a goal, then I become confident in my ability to get there one day. I know it will happen. It also means that I am not trying to finish a large task in one sitting. Telling myself that, for instance, I will take one day and get all of the paper revisions done, is just too daunting. And if I fail in that one day to get the job done? Then I really start to panic. Some people thrive on the last-minute adrenaline to get all the work done, but that’s definitely not how I am wired. Consistency keeps me calm.
Choosing the word ‘consistency’ also showed me that little things add up over time. Embracing ‘consistency’ resulted in 52 blog posts this year, which, in turn, brought me so much more. These blog posts turned into countless conversations, both online and offline, from zoom meetings with colleagues I’m just getting to know, to the sidelines of the rugby pitch with old friends. These conversations are changing how we approach academia, and how we mentor the next generation of scientists and leaders. I’m so grateful for every single one of these conversations and I’m so excited to see what’s next for everyone.
I no longer see choosing a word for the year as a silly little exercise. I see it as a tool to help you reflect on what’s been working, what hasn’t, and how you want to feel moving forward. A word can also help you bring focus to your work and life, acting as a beacon in moments of uncertainty. As we move into 2026, I would challenge you to pick a word for yourself. And if you need help figuring out how to implement that word, or if you’d just like to chat, reach out.
Happy New Year, more to come in 2026!
