BY CARLEEN TOBIAS
I have a confession.
I didn’t do 75 Medium the way the internet said I should.
No aesthetically arranged stack of self-help books. No colour-coded habit trackers. No perfectly curated “day 47” selfies. And definitely no pretending I enjoyed every second of it.
Because somewhere along the way, we’ve convinced ourselves that self-improvement has to look a certain way. That if your journey doesn’t fit neatly into a 30-second montage with motivational music playing in the background, you’re somehow doing it wrong.
I decided I wasn’t interested in doing it “right.”
I was interested in doing it consistently.
For me, 75 Medium wasn’t about reading ten pages of a book every day. It was about showing up for my studies instead. If I was going to spend an hour learning, researching, or writing assignments, that counted. It moved me closer to the person I wanted to become.
It wasn’t about following a restrictive meal plan that made me resent every bite of food.
It was learning how to eat in a calorie deficit without convincing myself chocolate had suddenly become illegal.
I still had dessert.
I still enjoyed dinners out.
I just learned that moderation isn’t nearly as boring as the internet makes it sound.
My challenge was drinking enough water, aiming for 10,000 steps a day, and getting myself to the gym consistently.
Notice I said consistently.
Not perfectly.
Some days I walked in feeling unstoppable.
Other days I questioned every life decision that had led me to voluntarily wake up before sunrise in the middle of winter.
And on those days?
I listened to my body.
Instead of forcing an intense workout because my challenge told me I had to, I’d spend time walking on the treadmill and doing mobility work.
A few months ago I would have called that “not enough.”
Now I call it showing up.
Because that’s what consistency actually looks like.
It adapts.
One of the biggest lessons I learned had nothing to do with calories, weights, or step counts.
It was learning how to take up space.
The gym can be an intimidating place when you’re starting out.
There are machines that look like they belong in a spaceship, people who seem to know exactly what they’re doing, and that tiny voice in your head whispering, Everyone’s looking at you.
Spoiler alert.
They aren’t.
They’re too busy wondering if everyone is looking at them.
There was something incredibly empowering about walking into that space anyway.
About trying the machine.
About asking for help.
About lifting a little heavier than I did the week before.
About realising I belonged there just as much as anyone else.
And honestly?
That lesson started following me outside the gym.
I stopped apologising for taking up space in other parts of my life too.
Around the same time, I added one more challenge.
I started creating content for my personal page.
Not because I wanted to become an influencer overnight, but because I realised creativity deserves consistency too. Some posts did well. Others disappeared into the algorithm faster than my motivation on a cold winter morning. The point wasn’t to go viral. The point was to keep showing up.
And that’s when it hit me.
I didn’t finish 75 Medium because I followed someone else’s version of discipline.
I finished because I built one that fit my life.
One that let me study instead of reading ten pages. One that let me enjoy dessert without guilt. One that understood a treadmill walk could be just as valuable as a heavy lifting session. One that taught me to take up space, whether that was in the gym, online, or simply in my own routine.
The internet will always have an opinion on the “right” way to improve yourself.
But maybe the best version is the one you’ll still be doing on day 76.
Because consistency isn’t about perfection.
It’s about building a life you actually want to keep showing up for.
Leave a Reply