Consistency Over Perfection: Why Boring Habits Actually Work

A few years ago, a friend showed me a habit tracker she absolutely loved. Each month was written out, with one spot for every day of the month — January had 31 dots, February had 28, and so on. Every day she completed her habit, she colored in a dot.

She called it the “Stupid F*ing Dots” (or SFD for short), and it really helped her exercise consistently. She found something that worked for her, and I was genuinely happy for her.

But it also made me realize something uncomfortable about consistency.

Starting new habits requires consistency. And for the most part, consistency is boring. It’s not sexy, it’s not exciting, and it’s definitely not Instagram-worthy. If consistency were sexy, everyone would be crushing their goals already.

Consistency Doesn’t Mean Perfection

While I loved how the SFDs kept my friend motivated, I also saw a flaw in the setup. Built into the tracker is the expectation that every single dot needs to be filled in for the year. Miss a day, and you’re left with an empty dot you’ll be staring at for months.

That empty dot becomes a glaring neon sign screaming, “YOU FAILED,” every time you look at the page.

And that’s where consistency often falls apart — not because the habit didn’t matter, but because one missed day turns into an all-or-nothing story.

Real consistency isn’t perfection. It’s showing up again after missing a day instead of throwing in the towel. It’s flexibility without quitting. Whether we’re talking about workouts, nutrition, or running, consistency looks like saying, “I did 3 out of 4 workouts this week — that counts,” instead of “I missed one day, so the whole week is ruined.”

Consistency in Nutrition

This exact pattern shows up constantly in nutrition.

As a nutrition coach, consistency is one of the biggest challenges my clients face — not because they don’t care, but because one “off” meal quickly turns into “I blew it, so what’s the point?”

Eating in a way that supports your goals most of the time matters more than:

• eating perfectly once in a while

• hitting “perfect” macros

• starting over every Monday

• restricting all week and then eating everything in the house

Your body doesn’t need chaotic nutrition. It needs reliable nutrition.

A Note for Runners

For runners, consistency in nutrition matters even more. Fueling before, during, and after runs only works if the rest of the week supports it. You can’t underfuel Sunday through Friday and expect to feel great on a long run Saturday.

Underfueling during the week sabotages performance, recovery, and often mental health — leaving runners wondering what went wrong. Nutrition works a lot like training for a race. Missing one workout doesn’t mean you quit the plan — you adjust and keep going. Nutrition deserves the same mindset.

I often hear, “I run so I can eat.” A more helpful perspective is this: I eat well so I can run well.

This Applies Beyond Food

And this idea doesn’t stop with nutrition. The same consistency-over-perfection mindset applies to sleep, recovery, and stress management too. Small, repeatable actions done most days matter far more than doing things perfectly once in a while.

If you take nothing else from this, let it be this: you don’t need to do things perfectly to make progress. You need to do them consistently enough that they become part of your life. Those empty dots don’t mean you failed — they mean you just missed a day. They mean you’re human.

One missed workout, one “off” meal, or one late night doesn’t erase your efforts. Quitting does. Consistency isn’t flashy, but it works. And over time, it’s the thing that actually sticks.