Consistent Comfort and Comfortable Consistency

Comfort is a good thing. Consistency is comfortable. But depending on what we mean by "consistent", it's not necessarily a good thing (depending on what we mean by "good").

This is already a mess.

Comfortable.

Feeling this way is a luxury not all can afford, but all can attain. It's either the absence of uncomfortable things or the presence of desirable things. It might require sacrificing long-term comfort for short-term, or vice-versa. It can be well-earned, taken for granted, excessive, or ascetically abstained from. It is a dependent variable—it cannot be adjusted like a thermostat that controls our momentarily desired temperament. I do not subscribe to the idea that we are responsible for our own comfort. Some of us want to be comfortable in the form of lounging on the sofa, under a blanket, with a fuzzy companion to pat, a cup of coffee to sip, and an endless string of YouTube videos upon which to sate our social needs—alas: impossible. Comfort cannot be manipulated. It can be encouraged by the right variables, but ultimately it is also subject to feelings and desires that cannot be so easily overwritten by a simple desire for comfort. We cannot be comfortable in our idleness when anxiety reminds us we are afraid of being useless; when over-ambition won't stop prodding us to get back to the to-do list; when self-criticisms creep up on us as soon as we accept comfort's offer of self-acceptance. 

Comfort is great, but it cannot be a goal by nature of the fact that it can't be directly influenced.

Consistent.

Here's a non-comprehensive list of what a definition of consistency should not entail: arrogance, stubbornness, ignorance, closed-mindedness, self-importance, fear of change, narcissism. 

It's just doing things with a certain level of reliability and predictability. 

Beware of consistent comfort because it's almost assuredly a sign that your working definition of consistency needs a bit of rethinking.

If you glanced at the previous post, hopefully you will just keep in mind here that even consistency eventually comes to an end, and that's nothing to fight or fear.

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Oh, right: Good.

I'm not going to try to tackle this one right now. Maybe not ever.