Be
Consistent!
by
Gary Ryan Blair
Consistency
- the absence
of contradictions
- is one of the hallmarks
of success.
While variety
may be the spice
of life, consistency
is one of
the keys to the
successful achievement
of ANY goal.
Let's
have
a look at
Merriam-Webster's
definition of "consistency":
con�sis�ten�cy
- agreement
or harmony
of parts
or features
to one
another or
a whole:
correspondence;
specifically:
ability to
be asserted
together
without
contradiction.
The agreement
and harmony
of your
goal
setting
activities
can indeed create synergy making "the whole greater than the sum of its
parts."
Consistency will not only
save you time by helping you
simplify and focus your efforts
but, more importantly, it will
help you set and routinely
meet the expectations you have of yourself. And that
equates to a positive impact
on your bottom line results.
Whether we want to admit it
or not, as creatures of habit,
we all like, expect and appreciate consistency. When we learn
or experience something new, we expect to be able to apply
that knowledge on a consistent
basis.
Ask any American to name the
three colors used on a traffic
light and they will without a doubt say; red, yellow and
green. Ask any American
to name the color of a UPS truck and they will in unison
say; brown. How about the color of a Tiffany's box? Robin's
egg blue!
The next time you read a newspaper
or magazine, take a good look
at the fonts, color schemes,
and margins. Then, look
through and examine each section. What makes each section
different but also
the same? Where
are the cross word puzzles? Where are the feature stories?
How do you know that the weather is on the back page or that
the lottery numbers are on page
2? How do you know that the letters to the editor are in
the front of your favorite magazine or that editorials are
in the back of your favorite newspaper?
One word - Consistency
It follows that good engineers,
designers, and architects believe
in the importance of consistency.
The streets in
American cities are good
examples of both consistency and conservation of knowledge.
Anywhere in America, yield and stop signs look exactly the
same. Traffic lights use red, yellow,
and green to mean precisely the same things regardless of
the street, city or zip code you may be in, thus making them
clearly identifiable anywhere.
It becomes difficult for people
and society when their knowledge
of things breaks down, hence the introduction of inconsistency.
An American, visiting a country with different street signs
other than their own will
inevitability make mistakes until they learn the new signs,
which in fact are consistent to the people of that country.
Even subtle variances and
inconsistencies like the difference
between kilometers and miles per hour can and will cause
American drivers to make mistakes.
Here's a few examples of how
a consistent approach can maximize
your performance and accelerate the rate with which you
achieve any goal.
� Consistently show up on time;
� Consistently tell the truth and do the right thing;
� Consistently honor your commitments;
� Consistently go the extra mile for your customers;
� Consistently take action and avoid excuses and procrastination;
� Consistently deliver excellent work;
� Consistently work out and eat the right foods;
� Consistently meet or exceed quota;
� Consistently pursue your passion and purpose;
� Consistently invest your money wisely;
� Consistently honor God;
� Consistently make everything you say, think and do count.
Consistency is wonderful when
used appropriately because it
improves the experience for both
yourself and the beneficiaries
of your efforts.
When Is Consistency Bad? "A
foolish consistency is the hobgoblin
of little minds..."
�Ralph Waldo Emerson
But
is consistency
all there is
to the successful achievement
of ANY goal?
We may be perfectly
consistent
with respect
to our behaviors, moral
principles and
values, yet our behaviors
are unhealthy,
our principles
may be incorrect and our values
misplaced.
We may even
be consistent
in treating others
as we treat ourselves,
but this kind of consistency would hardly be the mark of a good
life if we
happen to treat
ourselves poorly.
We might say that while consistency
is surely not sufficient for
success, it is absolutely necessary
for success!
Success requires that there
be consistency among our behaviors
and in how we apply these behaviors. Success in any endeavor
also requires a consistency between our standards and our
actions, as well as among our
inner desires. Finally, success requires that there be consistency
between how we treat ourselves and how we treat others.
In some cases, consistency
can become a self-perpetuating
monster: It has to be used for
a purpose. A foolish consistency
is one that serves
no benefit for the end user or their beneficiaries such as:
� Consistently being late for meetings;
� Consistently lying and cheating;
� Consistently disregarding commitments;
� Consistently procrastinating;
� Consistently avoiding responsibility by making excuses;
� Etc...
Why Is Consistency Good?
Consistency is great because
people like predictable things.
Family, friends, co-workers and customers feel comfortable
when they can rely on you to
do exactly what they think you
will do
and have done in the
past.
This appears to be almost
like a law of human nature. We
have a strong preference for
consistency in our lives. We
want things
to work the same way every time they happen. When we wake
up in the morning we want
to find the floor under our feet, the sun above our heads,
and coffee in our cups. And just
as we expect these kinds of physical
consistency, we also
expect psychological consistency. If we had marriages, families,
and jobs yesterday, we expect to find them today in pretty
much
the same condition.
Thus, we have "mental worlds" of our expectancies about the world, the people
in them, and our relationships with the world and other people.
And the glue that holds all these mental relationships together
is consistency. Why should
we expect our spouses to love us tomorrow? Because it is consistent.
Consistency becomes like a form of human gravity. It holds everything
down and together.
It helps us to understand the world and our place in it.
Be consistent. The overall
personal and collective win of
consistent behavior patterns
far outweighs any possible value
of inconsistency.
And now for my consistent
close;
Everything Counts!
Gary Ryan Blair
[email protected]
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