Success is consistency

You know how we talked about scheduling your days out so that you spend an adequate amount of time on each of your goals? If you keep it up through the year(s) and continually push yourself to new limits, you’re going to eventually see results.

That brings us to our next piece in the "Success Is" series: consistency. I think this is the most vulnerable part of the process, where people allow themselves to be sidetracked. The moment we lower the priority on our goals, the easier it will be to fall off the wagon.

Consistency is what builds habits and, conversely, it’s what breaks them.

Like if you’re trying to build up your blog (e.g., me), it’s important to be consistent with your publishing schedule. Or if you’re trying to break your bad habit of sleeping late (e.g., also me), you need to maintain a nightly ritual to wind-down and get to bed at a decent time.

Consistency can also help build discipline. When you’re trying to stick to a routine to work towards your goals, it’s too easy to let laziness win. You need to fight that laziness day by day, but there’s no easier way than to just do the things you need to.

Don’t feel like going to the gym today? Barring any illness or extenuating circumstances, you have no excuse.

The nitty-gritty part of success encompasses everything in the "Success Is" series we’ve talked about so far, but consistency is what builds your efforts into success. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, but SUCCESS DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. Say it with me! "Success doesn’t happen overnight."

And that’s why consistency is so important. Being consistent allows us to accumulate our efforts over time, which, if done right, typically results in success. It’s not enough that I pick up the banjo once every blue moon; I need to make sure I spend at least two hours each week learning chords and practicing strumming. Otherwise, I fall out of practice and won’t be able to learn how to play.

A word of caution that I feel like I need to give, in case my talk on consistency gets misinterpreted—when I say, “be consistent”, I don’t mean you need to be consistently good or consistently perfect. If you’re always practicing, always trying to find ways to improve, then you’re bound to make mistakes, and some of your attempts will flop. It’s perfectly natural to be afraid to fail along the way, but you shouldn’t let that fear stop you from keeping up your efforts.

Don’t be like me with my vlogging goal. I still haven’t pushed through my fear of creating something dumb, and where does that leave me? With no experience and still at square one. It’s going to require more willpower than expected, but I need to just create and not let the prospect of making a dumb video stall my progress. The only one keeping me back is me.

So the short story of all this? Build up the good habits, break out of the bad, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes as long as you’re pushing steadily forward. That’s how you’ll ensure that you’re always getting better, always moving forward towards achieving your goals.

Otherwise, you’re just stagnant. And who wants that?

Main image by Glenn Carstens-Peters.