People appreciate consistency.
Being consistent means doing the same thing over and over again.
Every day.
No matter what.
Let’s go through a few examples of how this is critical to success, but often overlooked.
The 20-Mile March
One of my favorite business books is the Good To Great series. In those books the researchers discovered the concept of The 20-Mile March.
They found that businesses that were most successful over time weren’t the ones with huge growth that came in spurts.
The most successful businesses were more consistent with their growth.
The researchers in the book compared this to two early teams that traveled to the South Pole in the early 1900s.
The team that made it to the pole and made it back successfully had a plan and stuck with it. No matter what.
The successful team did early research before going. They figured that if they traveled 20 miles every day they would be in good shape. Not too much, but enough to keep going.
The key to this strategy was that they went 20 miles when things were really bad. That was the difficult part.
But they also only went 20 miles on beautiful days.
Southwest Airlines was one of the business examples of this in the book. They focused on growing about 20% a year. Not too little. Not too much.
Consistent.
They turned down opportunities to get into new airports all the time.
Crazy, right?
Turns out it’s not that crazy.
They Do As You Do
Did you have a parent that told you to eat your vegetables while they sat at the table eating a steak and drinking a beer?
Or maybe they told you how important sleep was, but they only got about give hours per night?
Kids don’t really listen to their parents. They mimic. They do as their parents do.
It’s true in the business world too.
Your employees or team will do as you do.
If you tell them it’s important to be on time or early with assignments, but you’re always late for meetings then they’re going to call you on your BS. They’re going to follow your lead.
The Starting Epidemic
Lots of people have ambitions. They have goals. Dreams.
This is great.
You really can do anything you want.
But so many people start something new only to fade off it over the next few weeks.
Trying new things is fine to a point. But if you really want to accomplish something it will likely take much more than a few weeks.
Look at successful people you know.
Chances are they’ve spent years getting to where they are now. It works with just about anything.
I’m putting in a new yard right now. It’s bare dirt. We just planted the grass.
I look at the neighbor’s lush lawn with envy. But then I realize that they planted their yard 20 years ago. It’s taken 20 years for their yard to reach maturity.
So I’m in it for the long game.
Consistent care. Water, fertilizer, top dressing, etc.
It would be easy to not see a nice lawn in a month and just figure it’s not worth it.
That’s what a lot of people do with their goals.
They start, but lose consistency and quit.
Two Final Thoughts
The first thought is for yourself. It’s about being consistent in what you do and who you are every day. All so you can be the person you want to be tomorrow, next year and 50 years down the road.
A good place to start with this is thinking in the future. Looking at someone you admire and coming up with an idea of what you want to be.
Then looking at what you’re doing every day and making changes. Looking at what you need to do every day to achieve your goals in 50 years.
Then doing it every day. On the days when it’s difficult. And holding back a bit when it’s easy so you don’t burn out.
The second part is being consistent with others. Ask any coach in sports what type of player they prefer and they’ll tell you one that’s consistent. They may be the best or maybe not. But they show up. They’re reliable. The coach can count on consistent performance all the time. Every day.
People look for consistent leaders. Those that do what they say. Those that follow their own values. Those that show consistent performance every day.
Consistency is an overlooked aspect of success.
Build consistency into your life and you’ll set yourself up. You’ll find that over time that your lows become higher. And by lifting up those lows you’ll find yourself in more successful situations.
