What can sun, earth and ceiling fans teach us about consistency?
You are, in all likelihood, reading this while under some roof. And on the ceiling, there would be a fan, spinning with all its might. If that is not that case, then simply imagine sitting under a fan. Look up. Observe the rotating fan. What makes this fan so special? Yes, that it increases the air flow in the room so that you don’t have to use a handheld fan to avoid sweat is one thing that makes it special. But is that all? Think more. Would you prefer sitting under a fan that great, yet uneven speed? Or worse, it rotates for a few rounds and then stops for another few? Would you want to have moments of dry pleasure followed by a tsunami of sweat? No, right! Then what makes an ceiling fan special, more than the fact that it increases the air flow, is its consistency. Its ability to keep rotating continuously for hours and hours at the desired speed is what makes a fan special, useful and indispensable.
Consider one more example. Sun shines everyday. Earth is rotating around the sun continuously. Imagine what havoc it would wreck on earth if the planet just stopped revolving or the sun stopped shining just for one day. That this has not happened even once in billions of years is why human species evolved to become what they are today. Irrespective of how the weather is — sunny, dry or rainy — earth rotates and sun rays travel millions of kilometres to reach earth. This consistency in our solar system is what has nurtured life on earth.
As both examples show, the value of consistency cannot be understated. Consistency, then, when applied to academics, or to anything we are passionate about — music, photography, writing or athletics — can work wonders. In this neo-liberal economic world, survival is especially difficult. Being dynamic and having sudden bursts of energy can get you past the deadlines or the milestones. But what will take you far — make you win the marathon, write finest novels year after year, compose beautiful songs endlessly, and so on — would be being consistent in channelling your energy. Unlike the fan, sun and the earth, however, consistency for us does not mean that we need to do something every second, minute or day — we have the luxury of deciding the frequency and pace of our activities. The only requirement is to be honest and accountable to ourselves, to keep pushing the frontier, wherever, and whenever we can. As much as consistency is about regularity, it is also about resilience. There will be times when you are broken, you are ill, or you are just not in the right frame of mind. To be consistent would be to bounce back quickly from this hiatus, to carry forward from where you left. One should, then, aim to be like sun rays which, even if blocked by heavy clouds, attack the earth with full intensity the moment clouds move away.
