Consistency Builds Results

Developing habits of any sort, career or personal, requires consistent, repetitive behaviour to allow the habits to form. During all my years of coaching, the clients that have seen the best, longer term results are those that have been consistent in their actions and the process – thereby creating successful habits.  This applies to any goal -  weight loss, healthier eating, better sleep patterns, smarter work practices, etc.

In some cases you could almost liken it to the story of the tortoise and the hare.  You have the all or nothing people that are all in with the intention of changing everything at once and they like to go hard.  Then there’s the slower and steadier approach. By slower I don’t mean they take a long time to make it happen, rather that they have a less manic approach.

The all or nothing ‘hare’ soon discovers that their approach isn’t sustainable and in many cases they burn out soon after starting and then stop altogether creating inconsistency in the way they operate.  They believe that if they’re not implementing everything all at once then there’s no point implementing anything at all. They may also get disheartened that their results aren’t instantaneous.  The only consistency they achieve is the continual failure to follow through.

The steadier ‘tortoise’ tends to be more realistic about what they can introduce to their lifestyle and they’re clear about what they need to implement to reach their goals.  They have an action plan and follow a process, possibly only changing or implementing one thing at a time.  Fast to implement is good, it’s the volume of change that can cause the problem. 

Consistency creates change and, by consistently implementing those changes in smaller chunks, it allows you to build a solid platform of effective habits.  This platform is then the foundation on which you can continue to build your habits and therefore your success.