By Neil Eldred
In discussions focused on achieving goals, one area of goal achievement is often ignored: consistency.
Consistency is like the power behind a magical enchantment that brings your goals to realization.
Perhaps you’re one of the countless people who can’t make progress on the goals that matter. I experienced trouble in this area too.
What changed my life was learning about, and practicing, consistency.
Let’s see if consistency can do for you what it did for me.
What is Consistency?
Consistency is showing up regularly to perform focused action towards your goals.
Ideally, you want to show up daily. By taking daily action, you turn your efforts into habits. Pretty soon you show up automatically and work on your aspirations.
Before you know it, you’re making significant progress on realizing your goals.
More than you made in years.
Here’s an example of the power of consistency. I worked for a year on a short, novella, but I couldn’t get it finished. One problem I experienced, on a day-to-day basis, was that I seemed unable to find the time to work on it each day. Something always came up. Months went by with little progress made on my novella.
Then I learned about consistency. The ideas behind consistency clicked. I started showing up each day to work on my novella. By showing up daily I made steady, measurable, progress. Soon I pulled the trigger and finished my novella.
Now I apply consistency to all my writing projects and all my other goals. The results have been amazing and I feel more optimistic about my work.
And consistency has other benefits. By working consistently, you gain another habit that’s critical for realizing your goals.
You learn persistence.
When you show up day after day, and you plan be there no matter what the circumstances, you create the persistence you need to get through your setbacks and failures. Those same setbacks and failures that make other people give up.
When you practice consistency, quitting is not even an issue.
How to Be Consistent
Saying you’re going to be consistent is a lot easier than doing it. You have to commit to being consistent, which means showing up when you say you’re going to show up, whether that’s daily, every other day, or weekly.
I’ve talked about showing up daily, but maybe you can’t do that. Perhaps you can only show up on Sunday. That’s fine. You just have to make sure you show up every Sunday.
To make sure you show up, block the time off in your calendar. Be sure to block off how much time is going to be used for your goal. Half an hour, an hour, half the day. Whatever it is, make sure nothing is allowed to interfere with that block of time.
This is the time you’re reserving for your dreams. Don’t feel guilty for taking the time.
Block off that time every week for the next year. Now show up for every block. See how many goals you can achieve in a year. I’m willing to bet it will be more goals than last year.
Here are some more tips for achieving consistency in your life.
- Marie Forleo advocates knowing your “why.” Your why is the reason you’re trying to achieve the goal you’re going after. This means having a clear and compelling vision. You want to keep that vision in the front of your mind as you go to work on your goal. Your why should motivate you to action.
- Stanford researcher BJ Fogg recommends starting with tiny habits. For instance don’t start with plans to swim 40 laps. Set a goal to just show up at the pool consistently and put on your swimsuit. Keep doing that consistently and soon you’ll be swimming 40 laps.
- Decide what’s really important and let the rest go. Many of us are over committed, which is one reason we have trouble achieving the goals that matter to us. No more! It’s time to jettison the unimportant stuff, the stuff that doesn’t matter to you—like watching hours of TV each night. Focus on your goals. You’ll find it easier to be consistent.
- Realize that consistency doesn’t happen overnight. You will need time and practice to achieve consistency in working on your goals. Similarly, it you fail to work on your goals for several days don’t freak out. Just take a breath and resume your practice tomorrow. We all fail to be consistent every day. Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes you are tired and need a change of pace or a change of scene for the day.
Consistency is the key to realizing your goals both big and small. Consistency works by building habits that lead you to show up day after day. Knowing your why, implementing tiny habits, letting the unimportant stuff go, and getting back into the groove, if you slip, are all ways to build consistency.
Start building consistency in going after your goals today. You’ll see your life change.
How will you be more consistent?
Tell us in the comments.