The compounding effects of consistency

The road to successful outcomes is often less than straight forward. In many instances it is not a road you are familiar with it has blind turns, slow winding climbs and white knuckle descent to manage.?

Add to this that success for each of us is different with no fixed address or pre-defined route you can dial up in Google maps it means in many ways we are on the journey on our own.

Success much like a long drive requires a couple of things - firstly you need to have a decent idea of where you're heading and secondly you stay on the road and keep moving forward.

Let’s assume we know roughly where we are heading (noting that life like any good trip will toss up a couple of detours on the way) then the idea of getting there becomes the main focus. To get anywhere we need to be consistent in our effort - a walk of a thousand miles begins with but one step.

The key is to take that first step and then follow it up with a few more then a few more and before you know it your miles into your journey.

The message above is the consistency of your miles travelled brings you closer to your desired destination.

Using the story above as a metaphor for our career/life journey allows for one to recognise that it is the consistency of the effort that gets us to the desired destination not the speed at which we travel. Sometimes we will go fast and sometimes we will crawl along like we are wading through warm treacle.?

The above sets the table and highlights the idea of being consistent and steadily working towards a desired destination - all very easy to note down and talk about often way harder to execute in real life.

Life is full of distractions be it family, social, the work of work or just our propensity these days to get lost in the constant stream of stimulus that is available to us via our phone, tablets and TV's.

All of the above creating challenges to staying focussed and consistent in your efforts.

So how do we get to a point of consistency that helps to compound our efforts, deliver results and get us to the desired location??

There is very rarely a one size fits all solution because we are all different - how often do we see trends for diets, exercise, leadership motivation, etc that fall by the wayside as they might suit a percentage of the population but very rarely meet the needs of all of us.

For me the key is simplicity - just like a drive from point a to point b is pretty straight forward - building compounding consistency needs to be the same.

What does that look like - so the last few hundred words written are me really getting to the most important next four words.

?"Do three things everyday”.

Hold on you say - I've just read all the above to arrive at a four-word sentence "Do three things everyday" - yes you have.

It gets better - I'm not even going to tell you what three things to do every day that's up to you to decide.

What I will however say is that the three things can be big or small, simple, very fast or complex and drawn out it really doesn't matter. The key is consistency of effort whilst allowing for those days/ periods where the world is not your friend, you feel under the weather or just plain old worn out. On those days replying to three emails might feel like climbing Mount Everest.?

On other days you might well feel like the Energizer Bunny with the ability to write several reports, hold multiple meetings and kill it with a couple of high value deals to wrap up the day.

Pick your three things based on your mood or energy - and as a very famous sports brand would say "just do it" even the three smallest things will keep the journey moving forward.

Think for a minute about what you achieved today? Now think about the last month, then the last 6 months. Zoom out further and think about the last 1, 3 and 5 years.?

Often times we think we can achieve alot more in a shorter time frame then we actually can and it can be a great source of disappointment when we look back over a couple of months and have not hit the targets or desired objectives.?

This however through consistency of effort turns around over longer periods. I know in my own life if I look back in bigger blocks of time the achievements become quite clear.

To wrap up for the day I started by wanting to highlight the compounding benefits of consistency so what does that 3 things everyday look like in numbers?

If we take a year with around 240 working days x 3 things done, we have 720 completed activities/tasks.?

Imagine if we maintain that consistency year over year the compounding benefits like money in the bank increase annually delivering outsize advances and gains.

The key is not the speed at which you travel along the road - it is the ability to stay on the road until you arrive at the desired destination - three things everyday might just help you to arrive safely and with enough energy to enjoy said destination and remember.?

"life's greatest revelation is happiness is the journey not the destination”.

As always if you would like to add your thoughts, please feel free to comment or bounce me a message.

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