What do most, if not all, successful people have in common? Go on have a guess (although the title of this post is kind of a spoiler alert!). Yep you’ve got it they are consistent. They plug on day in and day out, doing their thing until they get where they want to go. It seems simple doesn’t it. Well that’s because it is. The theory is simple, yes, but in practice so many things can happen with derail our best laid plans. Leading to inconsistency. Not what we want.
It takes focus, drive and continual effort to remain consistent. All of which are skills you can learn, develop, hone and excel in IF you try hard enough. They are NOT attributes you are born with. So you can say goodbye to that get-out-of-jail-free-card’!
‘Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement’ James Clear
So the key to success is being consistent and you become consistent by developing repeatable positive habits.
Do you often feel like a hot mess? Never quite achieving what you hoped to, always finishing short, not sticking to goals, or routines? You know you can change, right?
Whether you are seeking this consistency in business (writing regular content anyone?!) or in your personal life, you can make changes which mean consistency (and therefore success) will be easy.
5 ways to be more consistent in business and life:
1. Focus on the right things
I see this one all the time. People spreading themselves too thin to be effective anywhere, because they are trying to be everywhere and do everything. It is just NOT possible. I know that building a business is hard. There are a lot of things which do need your attention, but there are a lot of squirrel/shiny object behaviour which goes on too…. Am I right?
If you scatter your attention, your efforts won’t be as powerful. Then when your kid gets sick and life piles on the pressure you will lose track of what you’re working on and that consistency goes out of the window.
With a clear focus on what’s important in that current season of your business, you can stay on track when when life tries to put a spanner in the works.
I love an Eisenhower Matrix for deciding which things are urgent, important, not urgent and not important and triaging them accordingly.
2. Calendar block
You can’t keep everything in your head. FACT! You might think you can, but somewhere in there stuff is getting lost. Using a calendar and blocking out time to work on certain things will revolutionise your consistency (if you look at it and I can’t make you look at it, THAT you have to do yourself!).
You need to write content, block off 9-12pm every Monday. You need to schedule social media, block off another chunk of time where appropriate for you. Then the magic has to happen – you have to STICK TO IT! There is no magic consistency pill, but calendar blocking will help, so give it a try.
3. When you don’t feel like it do it anyway
I’m sure there were times when Picasso didn’t want to paint, when Beckham didn’t want to play football and when you’re not feeling your business. But do you think David went and sat couch and played Fifa instead? No, he didn’t, he trained anyway and you need to do the same.
We ALL have times when we don’t want to record the video, do the lifestream, write the post, talk to the client. ALL OF US. But we’re creating our business and if we don’t do it no-one else will.
Do you want to be the type of person who shows up for their business and life? If so then act like it today. Think Mel Robbins and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 DO IT!
4. Simplify everything and automate where you can
If you have systems in place to do the heavy lifting and to keep you on track your life will be so much easier. Add in to that automating anything you do frequently and you will be freeing up time to focus on being present and showing up consistently.
Do you have clients emailing to book appointments. You can totally automate this, let them select a slot and get the relevant documents to them without you having to touch the process at all.
For your personal life think of the recurring orders you can set up so save time and make sure your cupboards are always stocked up.
5. Create some accountability
Often when we’ve only got ourselves to answer to we let ourselves down. We need to get uncomfortable and stick to the deadlines we set ourselves. Here’s where accountability comes in. Find someone to answer to. This might be a friend or a peer, even a family member. With this person holding you to what you’ve said you wish to accomplish you will find a new level of motivation to follow through.
Are you ready to move forward and create more consistency in your life and business? What are your favourite ways to keep consistent in your life/biz?
