Growing up, my brothers and I developed a sort of family lingo, made mostly of acronyms. I developed the one in the above-title, this morning, as I was introspecting myself (as I often do).

My upbringing which most likely is typical (define ‘typical’, please?🤪) taught me that it is important to be consistent. By doing so, one becomes someone whom others can depend upon. ‘People’ dislike inconsistency and undependability.

As I progressed into adulthood and continued on in life, the seeming societal importance of the Principle of Consistency continued to be driven home. Despite my best efforts to be consistent in my thoughts and actions, it was simply something I could not grasp or hold onto. My seeming inability combined with the way my brain processes input received by my five senses, kept me in almost a constant state of depression. I was aware people were depending upon me to be consistent and I was also aware that much of the time, I disappointed them.

Fast forward to a few years ago, when a few major life events came at me almost at once and I was forced to literally–I mean: literally (and not the way Millenials and Gen-Z-ers use the word ‘literally’ as a term of exclamation usually referring figuratively instead, to something😜) adapt or die! I re-examined like never before, the path I had allowed myself to travel and did my best to digest even more information about ‘balance’, ‘peace’, ‘happiness’, etc., than I previously had, since age 20, when I became interested in and began consuming ‘self-help’ resources.

Suffice it to say: I became OK and at peace, with being ‘inconsistent’. I also became ok/balanced/at peace with many other things that my upbringing and ongoing interactions with my adult peers throughout the decades, had conditioned me to be, that someone might be disapproving of.🙂

While there are natural consequences for being ‘inconsistent’, much of the time, there are simply times when one must change one’s mind about a previous decision, say, “NO,” to someone’s request for a favor or any other number of things that have the potential to disappoint another person, if one wishes to feel ‘balanced’ and ‘at peace’ with one’s existence.