Consistency – Why Do You Need to Be Consistent
How do you maintain consistency after almost forty years in the same business? How do you maintain love in the same marriage for forty-five years? How do you remain consistent in a changing world?
Consistency is living your values daily. It is based on who you are and what you believe. It is habit. By reviewing my purpose and my core values constantly, I remind myself of why I am doing what I do. I decided a long time ago to be positive and find the good in people and situations because I like how I felt much better than when I was negative. This positive consistency gets better results.
First, what I think becomes my words. My words become my actions and my actions make me who I am, and so the circle keeps going around. It is who I am under pressure, when I am tired, when I don’t feel like it, and when it is inconvenient. It is living as your word. This consistency builds self-respect and trust from others. It is reliability.
Consistency comes from reviewing your dreams, remembering your successes but also learning from your failures. It comes from having belief in your purpose, belief in yourself, belief in your team and belief in the vehicle to which you have chosen to dedicate your life. Consistency is “being” your values; the “outside-working” of your character. Consistency is simply repetition, it is habit.
So when I think of consistency, I just think of A – B – C.
Consistency is all about
A – Association – Who do you hang with? Do they support your dream and encourage you to go for it? Is your attitude positive and encouraging?
B – Belonging – Being a part of something bigger than yourself stretches you to be all you can be.
C – Confidence – It comes by reading positive material, listening to positive audios and attending personal growth functions. You get confidence by having a go at something, doing it badly at first and then eventually getting better. Conversation – What do you say to yourself when no one is listening?
D – Decisions – Making the decision to go for your dream- –”I will until.”
E – Excitement and Enthusiasm – Understanding your potential and the difference you can make when you share your idea with others.
F – Fun – Enjoying the journey means being able to laugh at yourself.
G – Guts – It’s the genuine urge to succeed and being generous in giving time and talent to worthwhile causes.
H – Habit – It’s what you do everyday without thinking, such as making encouraging phone calls or practicing random acts of kindness. Get it? Pretty simple really.
How can you be consistent in a world where there are so many distractions, all attempting to get your attention? It is about knowing your purpose, your dream. Then all you need to do when those distractions come along is ask: “Will this activity take me closer or further away from my purpose or goal?” Ask yourself: “Who am I being right now? Am I being the leader of my life, or have I chosen to opt out and let others tell me how I will live?”
This reminds me of the story of a guy who took his very expensive Italian shoes with pointed toes to the shoe repairman and asked him to tidy up the points because they were looking a little worn. “Certainly,” said the cobbler, “Do you want rounded toes or square toes?” “Whatever,” the man replied. The next week the man went to collect his shoes from the cobbler. When he pulled them out of the bag he had one shoe with a rounded toe and one shoe with a square toe. The man was stunned. When he objected, the cobbler said, “Never let anyone else make your decisions for you.”
Know what you want life to give you and what are you prepared to give in exchange. And be consistent.
