Hello and welcome and today's word is consistency.
Have you ever started something with enthusiasm only to let it fade away over time?
And maybe it was a fitness routine or a new hobby or a personal goal or a new relationship.
The initial excitement was there but somehow along the way it all dwindled.
I remember the first time I set out to write a book.
I was so inspired writing pages in a single sitting but soon distractions crept in and before I knew it weeks had passed without any progress at all.
Then fear set in of course and the negative voice in my head saying I should have done better and I should have done differently and why was I so easily distracted?
You get the idea.
It wasn't until I committed to writing a little every day regardless of motivation that the book finally took shape and that's the power of consistency.
Small efforts repeated over time lead to extraordinary results and as a business coach that's one of the most important messages I have for leaders.
Leaders of businesses but leaders of life.
People wanting to live their best life.
It's in the small steps that great things happen and yes every now and again in life huge change is necessary or required or forced upon us but it really is those small consistent steps that are so undervalued especially in our younger years.
I know I struggled with that for a long time.
Now Thomas Edison taught us a lot about consistency because he failed thousands of times before eventually successfully inventing the light bulb proving that persistence and consistency really do yield breakthroughs.
Serena Williams trained relentlessly on the tennis courts day in and day out to become one of the greatest tennis players in history and in fact on that note of those child prodigies that we often look at and we say oh you're such a natural violinist.
When we look at the life of somebody who we call a prodigy very often they started at such an early age to practice the violin let's say as an example and they practiced it every day maybe five minutes but maybe five hours or more but they did it every day consistently to become the overnight success that the media says they are.
The consistency is so often in the background and hidden but very,
Very powerful.
Leonardo da Vinci filled notebooks with sketches and sketches and more sketches and ideas and more sketches refining his craft over years of discipline practice before creating his masterpieces.
So these figures really show that success is not about instant wins it really is about commitment to the process even when progress feels slow.
Now studies suggest that habits form through repetition typically taking 66 days to become automatic.
Other studies show that it takes 30 days of daily practice to start changing neural pathways in the brain so there's not a definitive number here but certainly around that time 30 to 60 days possibly 90 days if we can be consistent for that amount of time we can absolutely change beliefs,
Change behaviours,
Create new ways of being possibly even new forms of a personality and a steady approach to goals and achieving goals rather than those big bursts of effort is more effective in creating long-term change.
Consistency fosters trust and so whether I'm in a relationship with a person or in business or if it's my own personal growth showing up regularly builds reliability and credibility and it enables people around us to feel safe and I'm also teaching my inner self,
My inner child perhaps,
That it can feel safe with me.
So three recommendations for today.
Number one,
Start small and build up,
Choose a habit and commit to doing it for just five minutes a day whether that's reading or exercising or practicing a certain skill,
Do it five minutes a day perhaps for a month if you can but if not then just for a week and notice the changes.
Number two,
I invite you to create a routine,
Set up a specific time for your activity to make it part of your daily rhythm and a very good way of doing this can be attaching something to a routine you already have.
So if for example you want to practice a new mantra or repeating a new belief to yourself,
Perhaps it's a good idea to do it whilst you brush your teeth which you already do every day anyway,
Do it whilst you're doing that or right afterwards and then it doesn't feel like you have to create a whole new routine,
You're just extending a routine that already exists.
That can be a very very clever way of building new areas of consistency into your life.
Number three would really be to embrace imperfection.
Consistency does not mean perfection and it doesn't mean we always get it right.
In particular it means that when we do fall over or miss a day,
We get back up on the bandwagon the next day,
We get straight back on the horse.
Missing a day is fine but always get back on track and that really is a golden rule because years and years ago I failed on that so often when it came to my fitness routine.
If I missed a day it was sort of all gone or a diet or a healthy eating plan.
If I messed up one day it was all over for me.
That was a mindset that wasn't helpful for me on any level at all and so it really is a question of being kind to ourselves and saying if I had a day where I went a bit do-lally,
Let's just get straight back on it tomorrow and all is well and we move forward.
And today we're going to end on a quotation by John C Maxwell.
Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.
