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A marathon may be completed the day of the race, but it’s the months of training beforehand, consistently hitting the pavement day after day, that builds the endurance to complete the race. Most people could not complete 26.2 miles by foot without any training. But with training, most people could complete the distance.

Consistency is the secret to results. It’s loving the journey, it’s learning to love and trust the process.

CS Lewis the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, talked about this, even when your heart is not in it, doing the activities you know you ought, and it will kindle the heart to love the right thing.

Being consistent in how we show up to work is a key part of being a professional. As you mature in the workplace, showing up consistently with the right attitude and effort is the mark of a real professional, as opposed to someone who’s just here for a job or only works when the moons align.

Being consistent in our effort is how we improve.

Being consistent is not perfection but again when we drop the ball.

Being consistent is trusting the process.

A few years ago I read Nelson Mandella’s autobiography, “A Long Walk to Freedom”. The title so succinctly covers how Mandella and his allies fought for freedom in South Africa. Success was not achieved with one brilliant act, or even a few brilliant acts, but consistent work over a long period of time.

Our world loves short cuts. Ways to get around doing the hard work of being consistent. We live in a microwave culture, where consistency is more like smoking meat. Low and slow heat produces the best BBQ.

Consistency is generally not difficult, but it is hard. 

It is not hard to do many of the things we have to do to win- not technically difficult, but it is hard as humans to show up day after day to bring effort to the table. It may not be technically difficult to run a mile- lace up your shoes and put one foot in front of another for 5280 feet, but it might be hard at first. It might take you lots of hard practice to get up to that distance- but the task is not technically difficult. 

Most humans struggle with consistency.

Nick Saban said: “Outcomes are a distraction.” I think this is a statement about consistency. Because you win one day, doesn’t mean that you can replicate it every time. There can be so many factors that go into winning, including luck. But the process, the slow drip of consistency will create the environment for success beyond a momentary victory. Which is why Saban was able to win so many titles in such a short span of time. 

How can we apply this:

Ask yourself: What is consistency going to build for us? If you were consistent every day for the next year (or longer) on the same goal, how would you change? What if it just taught you that some of your limits are self imposed? 

What are we willing to give up to be consistent? Being consistent with one thing might cost you somewhere else. You might have less time for binging netflix- or you might have to go to bed earlier- or you might have to rethink your budget. 

Set a goal of consistency, depending on what it is with a time and interval. That might be 10,000 steps a day, or completing 5 duo lingo lessons per week. Give grace when you fail, and get back on the train as soon as possible, consistency means showing up again not throwing it away. This doesn’t have to align with new years, but any timeline of commitment one month or one week or one year. 

Set up scaffolding. Scaffolding is a psychological term that talks about what systems and tools that we need around ourselves to help us to be successful. Much like a painter or an electrician needs scaffolding to get to the top of a building, scaffolding is things that make being consistent easier.

For example, a common one is if you’re trying to eat less junk food, don’t have junk food in reach. If you’re trying to look at your phone less, maybe you need to think about the apps that are on your phone or use a tool like a brick to lock stuff out. Maybe you need to set out your workout clothes the night before, or go work out with a friend to make it more attractive to do mentally. I have a friend who has a particular TV show that he only watches when he is working out, which helps him stay motivated.

I love the scaffolding of setting reminders on my phone for things that I only mark off when I’ve completed them. I have reminders for all sorts of things that would seem odd to people, but its scaffolding to help me be consistent. 

Considering things to be consistent, it’s not just work, not just fitness. It could be anything: reaching out to friends, calling your parents, or any number of things. It could be reading a Bible, it could be filing that report that you don’t want to file first thing every time.

So, what should you be more consistent in? And what would it look like if you pushed yourself to be more consistent? Think about a year from now if you started doing even one small behavior like walking a mile every day. What could that do to you with compounded interest over time?

This gets dangerously close to a New Year’s
Get a theme backgrounds here: resolution. But most people are inconsistent with resolutions. Are there small things that you can change and add to your routine that will help you to become more of who you want to be?

Every day we are being built into the people that we are going to be, and we’re either adding good bricks or bad bricks to that building. Consistency can help us to add more good bricks to that building.