Key to Success is Consistency

The Key to Success Lies in Consistency

When most people are feeling frustrated about not achieving a certain goal in life, it’s usually because they start and stop so much and regret their inconsistency later. When you think about a goal that you want to achieve right now, you can probably imagine how much better it would have been if you had just stuck to the plan and seen it through to fruition. The key to success is consistency. Once I accepted this as fact, my life changed in amazing ways.

You may envy others who have set their mind to something and worked on it little by little until the task was done. And you ask yourself why you haven’t done the same. It doesn’t help to look back and beat yourself up about what could have been.

All that does is waste time and serve to demotivate you in the process. Instead, you need to adopt a different approach that doesn’t focus as much on the end result as it does the habit of progressing toward the finish line on a regular basis.

Inconsistency is something that plagues people in many different areas of their lives. Whether it’s trying to achieve a weight loss goal, working toward a financial goal, or something else – without continual action, they will never cross the finish line.

Consistency also varies depending on what you are applying it to. For example, there might be one task that you do every week in a business to put it on the path to larger earnings, but when it comes to weight loss, that consistency must be on a daily basis. In both my personal life and my business, the key to success is consistency and I do not ever forget that.

For your ultimate goal, you want to think about what it would take in order for you to get the results you want, and how a mindset of consistent progress could finally help you get there.

This is nothing more than a habit that needs to be cultivated by you. Give yourself some grace in going through the learning process and know that you might have a couple of setbacks before you find your groove and finally approach your goal in this manner.

Adopting a Progress Over Perfection Mindset

For reasons only known to you, you might be holding yourself back with a perfection mindset. This is something that hinders many people when striving for something they want. If you believe that the key to success is consistency, perhaps this will help you to let go of any perfectionist habits that are holding you back from achieving great success in your life.

It serves as an excuse to not make progress, even though logically, they believe that’s what they want. You might feel paralyzed by indecision or fear that what you are doing is not right or good enough.

So instead of plowing through and making progress in spite of your beliefs, you stay stuck. This can cause you to have an outlook full of self doubt that weighs down every decision you make from that point on.

Every person who has successfully achieved their goal with a strategy of any kind has been met with moments where they did something imperfect. What’s worse is that if you are openly discussing it with others, either in your private life or online, you’ll often hear feedback that is detrimental and critical, solidifying your belief that you made the wrong decision to go forward.

But keep in mind that this is just human nature for people to want to have input about what others are doing. It doesn’t mean that you are wrong. All it means is that they would have done things differently, if at all.

But their life is different from yours. You have unique goals that are precious to yourself, which means you have to remove them from the equation when you are analyzing your efforts.

Before you even begin a journey, go ahead and tell yourself that you are going to make mistakes and it’s okay. To force yourself to stress over any obstacles or mishaps is simply allowing yourself to be stopped in your tracks.

If you are resilient against criticism and self doubt, you’ll be able to make incremental progress that leads to substantial results in the end. Think about a goal you want to achieve and make a realistic time frame for it to happen.

Create a doable schedule that will allow you to be consistent without having to stress or worry that you won’t stick to something. Stop waiting for perfection, whether it’s a perfect day that you want to unfold or a perfect time to choose to get started. Instead, embrace your new belief that the key to success is consistency.

You want to take action quickly and push through those pivotal moments where you have to make a decision about whether to keep taking action or stop what you’re doing just so you can beat yourself up.

You can go to any successful person’s social media and find dozens of complainers who are critical of what they have achieved. For example, if you visit an author’s group, you might find thousands of people who appreciate their work, and thousands who wonder how anyone could possibly read it.

If that author only listened to the negativity, they might be swayed into abandoning their dream and the customers who do appreciate their work. By relying on external validation to push you forward, you can’t have the growth you need or want.

Consistency is a Superpower

This is an excerpt from “Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control” by Ryan Holiday. I began this book when Ryan first released it in 2022, but it’s only now that I’m ready to receive his wisdom and guidance.

Don’t worry about setting any records . . . just report for duty. No excuses. And here’s the irony: This is also a way to break records!

Know and believe that consistency is a superpower. Day-to-day willpower is incredibly rare. Lou Gehrig was a solid position player and a good hitter. But his success really was rooted in the fact that he didn’t miss many days of work.

You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat.

The ability to do that, coupled with the ability to endure what John Steinbeck called ‘dawdle days’ while writing East of Eden… those days when everything seems out of whack, when you’re just not feeling it, when the distractions won’t stop—is the first step to greatness.

Literally. You cannot be great without the self-discipline to do that. One thing a day adds up. Each day adds up. But the numbers are only interesting if they accumulate in large quantities.

Understanding the Roadblocks to Consistency

There will be roadblocks in your way as you try to achieve your goals, and instead of trying to avoid them completely, accept that they are going to happen and then have a plan to work through them.

Some people don’t like to admit it, but you might lack motivation to achieve your goals. You might be in a comfort zone that is currently outweighing your desire to shake things up and achieve success.

Another roadblock you might have is overwhelm. When you start thinking of a large goal, whether it’s losing 100 pounds or earning 6 figures a year, it can be quite intimidating for you to think about what it takes to get there from where you are now.

It might be a simple case where you don’t know where to begin. This has to be planned out so that you’re not constantly starting a project to achieve a goal, only to find yourself floundering because you didn’t plan ahead.

You may be prone to distractions, too. In today’s digital world, people are often distracted by texts, social media, or even well meaning family members and friends who disrupt your focus.

You may need to have a plan where you consistently check in with yourself about the ultimate goal you are working towards so that you can see the end result and motivate yourself, yet spend time immersed in the small, individual steps it will take to get there.

Lifestyle Habits Can Contribute to Consistency in All Areas

Believe it or not, there are some issues you may have in one part of your life that can affect other parts. These are typically lifestyle habits that can sabotage even the most well meaning person from achieving their goals. Internalize the concept that the key to success is consistency and all ares of your life will improve.

One of your problems may be simple time management. If you can embrace a more defined schedule, such as going to sleep at the same time each day and waking up at the same time where you are not tired or rushing to complete your to do list, it can help you have time in your day to consistently achieve progress on your goal.

It’s good to get in a routine for your morning, afternoon, and night as well as weekdays versus weekends so that you know when your schedule is free for you to work on your goal.

But you can’t just carve out some time and assume you’ll know how to fill it. You have to have a plan that isn’t just theoretical, but has you taking action towards your goal as well. If you have no free time to work on your goal, it may be a sign that you have over scheduled yourself or over-committed yourself to someone else’s needs.

You have to know how to prioritize your goals and your needs so that you will be better equipped overall to support others when and if you have time and energy. In addition to your time management habits, make sure you are resting your mind and engaging in things that bring you pleasure.

Some people simply burn out with consistency. For example, if they’re trying to lose weight they might get tired of having to count calories day in, day out. Or if they are working on an online business, they might tire of having to write so much content.

You have to have a little bit of time off to recharge both your physical and mental state so that you feel like charging after your goals on a regular basis. With most things in life, there’s probably no one who is going to hover over you and make sure you take action regularly.

In adulthood, you have to do this on your own, and it may be something that you have to get used to and practice in order for it to take effect. Even though you don’t have support from others, it doesn’t mean you can’t surround yourself with like minded people who can reflect a good role model for you. Do whatever you need to do to embrace the proven concept that the key to success is consistency.

Think about which goals in life you haven’t had the best consistency with. Be honest about the reasons why and make an action plan with bite-sized steps to get you used to being consistent with your progress.

Connie Ragen Green is a bestselling author, marketing mentor, and online marketing strategist, working with people and corporations on six continents to help them increase their credibility, expand their visibility, and explode their profitability. If you are interested in getting started with online entrepreneurship, find out more by checking out my training on how to make your first income online at 3 Day eBiz (Use Code: MAKEITHAPPEN to Save) and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.