How To Be Consistent At ANYTHING!
Imagine if you could create consistent, predictable income…If you could work out on a regular schedule and never miss a beat…If you could create a pipeline that always delivers what you need in terms of your business and also peace of mind.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could do all that?
One of the number one problems my clients have is that they can’t figure out how to become consistent in these things. Sometimes they’re consistent at their business, but their health has now taken a toll. They’ve neglected it because they haven’t been consistent in that part of their lives.
Good news! You can be consistent at everything if you know the 5 Rules of Consistency!
Self-Commitment and Consistency
There are two types of commitment:
#1 Commitments we make to others.
#2 Commitments we make to ourselves.
Today, we talk about #2: making and keeping commitments we make to ourselves so we get what we want and live the happiest, most productive and profitable life possible. It’s important at the midway point of our year to say, “Okay, if you haven’t been consistent till now, here’s how to change the tide for yourself for the rest of the year.”
The 5 Rules of Consistency
#1 – Believe in your abilities
Believe that you can do what you need to do to get the job done. If you don’t even believe in your abilities, you’re sunk. Don’t even go to step two, because you’re not going to be able to consistently hit whatever targets you have set for yourself.
I grow my business in a consistent, low stress way because I execute consistent, predictable actions. I believe first in the fact that if I do these things, that they’ll work. It’s not that I won’t fail, but I truly believe that things will work out in the end.
#2- Make a plan
Some people are really good at making a plan, but then when it comes to the implementation, all hell breaks loose. They get distracted or things get boring. Whatever. If you make a plan, the execution comes next but the first thing you have to do is say, “Where am I headed?”
If you don’t know where you’re headed, if you’re completely winging it, it’s going to be really difficult for you to be consistent because your consistency has to be rooted in something that you’re shooting for, something that you’re aiming to achieve.
It doesn’t matter how specific the plan is, but just identify and define what it is that you ultimately want.
What kind of work makes you happy?
What kind of schedule makes you happy?
Do you have an idea of what income you’re trying to generate?
At the time I’m writing this, it’s June 8th. What do you want to have by the end of the year? You still have six and a half months to go. That’s a long time to achieve whatever you need. Don’t look at it as half the year’s gone; look at it as if you still have half of the year to go and make your plan accordingly.
#3 -Have and repeat your purpose to yourself.
The third piece of the puzzle is a super simple one, more important than even the plan. What is meaningful in the work that you do? I live and breathe to help people live happier, wealthier, more fulfilled lives. And I have to make sure that by the end of the day, I hit at least one of those buttons for one person. And that means that I’ve been doing things that are meaningful to me, that make me happy, that make other people happy, wealthy, and more fulfilled. Everyone wants to know that they and their work matters. And this is what I do.
You have to ask yourself, “Why do you do what you do? What makes you get up in the morning? What makes you want to pick up that phone? What makes you, on a day when you feel like you have no energy, get up anyway and keep on going? What is it you’re looking for?”
Is it the sparkle in the eye of your clients who have maybe had a big “aha” moment that you delivered to them? Maybe you helped them make a big decision and they feel really, really proud of themselves. What is meaningful to you about the work that you do? And why do you get up in the morning? If you believe in your abilities, you have a plan and there’s meaningfulness behind the work that you do, you are more than half of the way to actually creating that consistent, predictable life that you want for yourself, which brings us to number four.
#4 – Rules and Rhythms
I have a rule. I have to talk to five people every week because if I have five conversations, I will be able to keep my pipeline going, I’ll continue to have low stress and it’ll be fantastic. How I get to those five calls can happen in many different ways like emails, videos, workshops, webinars, outreach, follow-up, billboards. There could be 1,000 different ways that I can generate those five conversations. The rule is, however, to generate five conversations.
The rhythm that I create every day is to do something that will create those conversations. I work THIS week to get conversations NEXT week because that’s usually how it works. I have to keep feeding the beast, feeding the beast, but it’s easy because some days I feel like making calls, and some days I want to do videos. Other days, I don’t really want to talk to people and so I’ll shoot out an email or I’ll send some text messages.
Those are the kinds of things that allow me to pick the things that I want to work on, and I know they will contribute to my “five conversation” rule. People get bored when they have to do the same thing every single day. A lot of people say, “Well, I’m going to spend an hour a day making calls.” Well, what if it was an hour a day making calls or sending emails or videos or all the other different things in a list that all of which will help you deliver whatever rule you have set for yourself?
I like flexibility. Most of the entrepreneurs I work with have very, very flexible lives. For me to say, one hour a day has to be making calls is not reasonable. But if I say throughout the week, “I have to make sure that I’m putting in work every single day, and this effort will generate a baseline result to keep, my business going.” Then it gets a little bit fun because now I have choice.
And when you have choice, as opposed to obligation, you have a lot more self-motivation.
#5 – The consequences of NOT doing this work have to be scary as f*ck
Identifying the consequences of NOT doing the consistent work you should be doing is the equivalent of creating a fictitious “saber tooth tiger” for your brain. We’re more likely to move away from something, to run away from the proverbial “saber tooth tiger,” than we are to skipping towards greener pastures. Our brain is much more tuned to pulling away from negative things than moving towards positive ones.
If I don’t want to be $150,000 in debt, miserable, my stomach basically eating itself with too much stomach acid or not enough or a combination of those things–I have no idea what was wrong with me, but it really, really hurt when I got stressed–if I don’t want to have sleepless nights, if I don’t want to wake up in the morning and just pray that my inbox is not full of things I don’t want to hear, see or do, then it behooves me to get up, to look at my plan, to reconnect with my meaning and to establish and work through the nice, easy rhythms that I create for myself.
I know that if I can do those things consistently and I have a choice of the things I can do that will deliver to that one simple rule (five conversations a week), my business will never fail.
Today, I fear NOTHING
And the economy can do what the economy will do. The market will do what the market will do. And people will say what people will say. And it won’t matter because I know what my rules and rhythms are. And I very much know what that consequence looks like and I never want to see them again.
Ask yourself, “What are my five answers to those five questions?”
Believe in your abilities, that’s number one. If you are negative self-talking to yourself, I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, nobody wants to talk to me, you’re going to really have a hard time with consistency.
First of all say, “I’ll figure it out.” That’s it. That’s all you had to say, “I’ll figure it out.” Believe in your ability, believe in that you can figure stuff out. You’ll get the answer eventually. You may not have it right now, but you can go get it.
Two, make a plan. Where are you headed? Define it. Don’t wing it. Even if you’ve winged it to this point and you’ve been able to survive, it’s better. Trust it from a queen of winging it, it’s better to have a plan. Way less stressful.
Identify with your meaning, that’s number three. Why is your stuff meaningful? What makes you want to get up in the morning?
Number four, rules and rhythms. What general rhythm that if you kept up on a minimum basis would allow you to create the consistent results that you need?
And number five, identify the saber tooth tiger, who’s chasing your ass?
Then build the consistent, predictable, and happy life you want.
It’s all up to you – no one’s going to hand it to you. Carpe Diem!