What Is Consistency? Phil Pearlman Returns to JUST PRESS RECORD

‘Tis the season for people to throw around ideas like resolutions, habits, and consistency.

And that’s a good thing. We should review these ideas, if nothing else, on common cyclical holidays. New Year, birthday, anniversary, half-birthday, Tuesday night at the bar - they’re all loops inside of other loops.

Resolutions, habits, and consistency are neither good or bad. They can compound in good or bad directions. But at their core, they’re just repetitions.

Which is exactly what Phil Pearlman told me in our latest Just Press Record: “Consistency is a rhythm.”

I had showed him a clip from my episode with Nancy Burger and Julia Duthie. The clip explores the series of reinventions (or changes, or - hell, rebirths!) we go through.

In one sense, all the switch-ups make life feel woefully inconsistent. But in another sense, if change is the constant, then consistency is hiding behind the direction all along. Given how Nancy and Julia’s lives have evolved, from their experience, I find myself believing in the latter.

Phil’s been through multiple lifetimes as well. That’s a big reason I wanted him to see this clip. He ended up sharing a story about his dissertation advisor, from 25+ years ago, who asked him, “How long do you have to act a way before it’s not a mask anymore?”

He answers that question in the episode.

Listen to how Phil answers that question - and why behaving your way into being is the only authenticity that actually matters.