Heart Failure and Duolingo — The Power of Consistency (41)

I tell my patients all the time: the key to success in activity isn’t to push until you collapse. It’s to go as long as reasonable, stop when you’re tired, and then come back later. Repeat this several times throughout the day.

In other words—be successful like a heart failure patient.

I know that sounds strange, maybe a little funny, but it’s true. And it applies far beyond healthcare.

Lazy Duolingo (Spanish)

I’m on day 672 of my Duolingo streak. My longest one ended in 2022, when I caught Covid and could barely remember how to speak English, much less Spanish. That streak was over 1,500 days in a row. Losing it was devastating.

Here’s the truth: I didn’t start Duolingo with some burning desire to be bilingual. I started because I love connecting with people—and I live and work among Spanish speakers every day. My streak obsession is almost silly, really. It’s more about my rule-following nature than raw ambition.

Most days I don’t do a “real” lesson. Sometimes it’s a quick word-matching game or an AI practice chat that feels borderline cheesy. But I do it anyway. And because of that, I’ve inched my way into an A2 level. That doesn’t make me fluent, but it has surprised me with hidden usefulness.

Once, during Covid, we had a patient who spoke no English. He was a thirty-year-old construction worker, brought in by EMS with no clothes after being found down at home. We were short on staff, and translation devices weren’t available. I had to manage on my own.

When he was being discharged, he looked distressed—afraid he’d get in trouble for stealing hospital property. I surprised myself by telling him, in Spanish I didn’t even know I had, that it was fine. He could keep the “dress” (the hospital gown) as a gift. He burst out laughing, the fear dissolved, and he thanked me.

That moment didn’t come from a perfect study plan. It came from small, silly, stubborn consistency.

Congestive Heart Failure: A Different Kind of Strength

Heart failure sounds terrifying, and it is serious. But it’s not the same as cardiac arrest. It’s gradual. Chronic. Often manageable for years, even decades.

Heart failure patients have a unique kind of fatigue. They can be just as strong as the next person, but stamina that’s their enemy. That’s why I teach them to embrace activity in small, deliberate doses. Get the mail yourself—twice. Use the farthest bathroom in the house. Sit to cook, then stand up four times to stir the pot. Tiny choices, done consistently, make them stronger.

That’s their superpower. And it can be ours, too.

Consistency Redefined

Here’s the mistake we make: we think consistency has to look like rigid discipline or Instagram-worthy routines. But real consistency isn’t glamorous. It’s not what a class, coach, or influencer says it “should” be.

It can be listening to a Spanish podcast and catching only 35% of the words.

It can be walking the long way to the fridge just to put the ketchup away.

It can be practicing the tiniest thing, over and over, until it builds into something bigger.

Your brain loves consistency. Your body thrives on it. Society admires it, even if it only recognizes certain forms. But here’s the secret: you get to define what consistency looks like for you.

Whether it’s language learning, heart failure recovery, or leadership growth, small consistent actions—messy, imperfect, even “lazy” ones—compound into something powerful. Not overnight. Not always visibly. But inevitably.

And that’s how lives change.

🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5FLWqi42R7Yq1glSh9uxcO?si=xXIrazyITfev5SJNqmaWBg