How to show up consistently when your energy is not consistent

Running your life when you have chronic mental health issues is no joke.

Let alone running a business. If you’ve tried to market yourself online even for a second, even vaguely, you’ll know that the ONE thing you’re supposed to do is “show up consistently! Post every day!” Otherwise the algorithm will eat your posts, everyone who’s ever encountered you will forget you and you’ll never, ever do business again.

(Ahem I’ve been getting clients online for 8 years and I barely post on socials, but THAT’S WHAT THEY’D HAVE YOU BELIEVE.)

The thing is, my brain doesn’t always do ‘consistent.’ She does super speedy typing and funny comebacks and two new business ideas while I’m driving to the shops, but she doesn’t do it, like, every day. She has days and weeks of having trouble with the steps required to make breakfast or write a shopping list or pack snacks in a bag.

(This is why I work with a lot of AuDHDers/ADHDers, full-time parents and people living with chronic illness. Cause I know that “just can’t” feeling.)

So here are some ways to maintain life and business consistently without really being consistent.

1. Prioritise your priorities

I will always show up for the work I’ve committed to that people have paid me for. (Unless I’m really not capable, in which case I’ll cancel transparently and with as much notice as possible). And I will always prioritise laughing in the kitchen at dinner time with my husband and son. Everything else matters very little by comparison. So as I go through my day and week, I’m literally asking myself, ‘did I commit to this and am I being paid for it?’ and ‘will this help me be a person who’s laughing in the kitchen later?’ The key part here is I feel free to drop the ball on anything where the answer isn’t ‘yes’. On the weeks where I can do it all, I do it all. On the weeks where I can’t, I cheerfully and guiltlessly let the less-important things go. So even with an inconsistent level of input, I pretty much always show up for my paid work and show up laughing with my family in the kitchen, and I don’t think anybody really notices if I don’t show up anywhere else.

2. Remember - “I don’t owe the internet anything” and “nobody is paying much attention to me”

The reason I prioritise work I’m being paid for is not because it’s about the money, but because if somebody pays me then I actually owe them something and I want to make good on it. I do not owe anything to the people who follow me online and benefit from my free work. I love you guys so much, and I adore making free content and supporting you, but if I have an off week or month and I can’t produce as much as I wanted to, I don’t let myself feel bad about it. I don’t owe the internet anything.

Also, I highly doubt that anybody is checking their calendars and thinking ‘gee, where is Kamina’s substack post this month?’ I assume you’re all out there living your lives, and nobody is paying that much attention to me. So I feel free to take a break any time I want to and resume showing up when I have the energy again. You’re allowed to do this too.

3. Automate as much of life as possibly by batching content, decisions, and meals when you feel like it

This month (June), if you follow me all the places it’s possible to follow me, you will receive: 9 emails marketing Create & Get Paid; a free podcast episode, a paid podcast episode and a written post on substack; weekly coaching prompts in my free facebook group; and a free training to help you figure out your next (or first) creative income stream in 18 minutes and get it started next week.

Am I writing or posting any of these in June? Absolutely not! I wrote them weeks ago, when I felt like it, and scheduled them to go out automatically while I’m spending my June editing a book, travelling to a speaking gig and collapsing on the couch.

When you have inconsistent energy, you have to use the energy when it shows up! Make 6 meals and freeze them, then don’t cook for a week. Buy all the birthday cards you have to write for the rest of the year and pull them out as needed. Write 4 blog posts and schedule them to go out later. Then when you have a day where you ‘just can’t’, you don’t have to.

4. Chant “boring business, exciting life”

I cannot remember whether it was Anna or Denise who first said this I’M SO SORRY but I say it to myself nearly every day. I want to be clear, you guys: coaching you all is not boring. It’s rocket fuel. The part that’s ‘boring’ is not doing stuff: not changing my business name, not tinkering with my website, not starting five new income streams and a YouTube channel. (I’ve stopped myself from starting a YouTube channel SO MANY TIMES this year!).

Because when I say ‘boring’ business, I mean ‘simple’ business. ‘Stable’ business. A business that’s going to sustain itself and grow consistently without draining my soul so that I have the free time and energy to get my dopamine elsewhere. You shouldn’t try to get all your dopamine from your business!

Some things in life are allowed to be the simplest possible, least exciting version of what they are, so that you’re freed up to create excitement in the bits of life that really matter to you.