“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
Maintaining high standards and consistency in one of the biggest challenges I face with my employees. I experience less anxiety and stress when I can count on my employees; therefore, I can direct my energy on areas I feel have a higher return on my time.
Having a consistent, high standard of performance is often more important than your skills and can be the defining factor between failure and success. Your consistency is a critical trait to help advance yourself professionally and will exponentially increases your chances of receiving raises, bonuses and more opportunities. Without a commitment to consistency, you can have the best strategies or the most talent and still not accomplish your intended results. The people in your life want to depend on you, and if they can not, this uncertainty will likely lead to missed opportunities and failing to reach your full potential.
The Benefits of Consistency
Establish your reputation
Developing a habit and reputation of consistency is an effective way to establish trust. When people see you as dependable and reliable, you will likely be considered for more opportunities.
Accomplish Desired Outcomes
When you are consistent and commit to specific actions, you are more likely to achieve your desired outcomes.
Maintain Your health and Wellness
Consistent patterns are the key for maintaining your mind and body wellness. Any person that has wavered in their commitment to a diet or exercise regimen can appreciate the importance of consistency.
Here are tips to establish consistency in your life
Tip 1: Perseverence and discipline
Maintaining a commitment and pushing yourself through barriers and setbacks will help establish discipline and the habit of consistency. Developing discipline and resolve will help your consistency when things get difficult.
Tip 2: Set high standards and expectations
Setting high standards will give you a clear picture of what you expect from yourself. Once you clearly define your expectation and establish a predictable level of performance, you will do what it takes to live up to your standards. You will establish habits and a mindset for consistency.
Tip 3: Focus
Learning to focus on the right things is critical for maintaining a consistent level of performance. To make consistent progress, you have to take specific actions that align with your goal. You should be aware of the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, that states roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If your focus is scattered on too many things, you can be a hard worker and still struggle maintaining consistency and a high level of performance. You need to consistently focus on the right things.
Tip 4: Values
If you place a high value on being consistent, you will see this manifest itself in your actions. Values can be a strong driving force to direct your focus, decisions, and actions. Therefore, if you are not happy with your results, you should evaluate your actions and become consistent with prioritizing your values.
Tip 5: Establish an identity
Establishing an identity can make your commitment to consistency easier. You can make a choice that you are a person that is consistent and people can depend on you. Consistency is a choice and you can decide to have this characteristic or not.
Tip 6: Set goals
Setting a goal is an excellent strategy to establish a vision and organize your resources. To achieve your goals, it is important to establish consistent patterns and a commitment to your daily rituals. Too many people fall short on their goals due to the lack of commitment and consistency. If you know of a person that always accomplishes their goals, you will likely see a very consistent and regimented routine. Making consistent and marginal improvement will keep you moving forward to accomplishing your goals.
Tip 7: Establish good habits.
Establishing consistent patterns and specific habits are the keys for seeing continuous progress in life. Your daily agenda is important to accomplish your goals and you can use habits to help establish patterns and free up mental energy. Developing good habits will create an automatic routine and this starts by understanding the habit loop: set up a cue that triggers the pattern, which gives you a reward.
I use this strategy to help me commit to a consistent exercise regimen: I set out my running shoes and clothes for easy access in the morning (the cue), I go for a 30 minute run (the pattern), and I feel great and have improved health (the reward). You will establish your habits by consistently craving your rewards and strategically planning triggers to motivate action. A great resource to learn more on habits is “THE POWER OF HABIT WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO IN LIFE AND BUSINESS”, by Charles Duhigg.
“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.”
Tip 8: Understand your purpose and maintain your passion
Humans are more willing to work through struggles when they clearly understand the purpose and are passionate about what they are doing. When you remind yourself of why you are doing something, you will appreciate the journey and find it easier to maintain a consistent effort, even when things get tough.
Tip 9: Be patient
It is important to give your objective enough time before judging it as a success or failure. If you are constantly changing your focus or direction, you might not be giving your objective the attention or time it needs to succeed. Setting a realistic time-frame will help you eliminate feeling overwhelmed or giving up. Avoiding these negative emotions can help you maintain a consistent effort.
Final thoughts:
Whenever you start a task and the initial excitement wears off, you and the world will now find out how committed you are to your goals. Your resolve will often be tested and giving up can enter into your thoughts. As John C. Maxwell states, “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda”. To reach your full potential, establishing consistent daily rituals will define your destiny. Consistency is a necessary ingredient in success and most people do not appreciate its true power.
