You and I, as human beings, are not consistent. Still, our brains tend to think other people are consistent (fundamental attribution error), and our brains have a need for consistency (cognitive dissonance).

A very literal application of this: scheduling. To say I appreciate habits and fixed routines would be a huge understatement. (I’m a virgo!). Still, one of the best things I’ve cultivated is a taste or discipline for flexible habits.

“With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson probably appreciated paradoxes. F. Scott Fitzgerald certainly did. “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”