What is consistency?
Consistency can be defined as the act of being dedicated to doing the same things repeatedly over time to reach a goal. It is the practice of regularly investing one’s efforts to achieve incremental progress. It’s a vital tool for maximising one’s potential.
Why should you be consistent?
- To achieve growth and success. Galatians 6:4 (NLT) ~ Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.
- To effectively steward what God has given you. Matthew chapter 14 narrates the parable of the talents in which a man gave talents to his servants according to their abilities. Each servant varied in how they applied their ability to the talent they were given. The ones who maximised their potential were praised and promoted by the master whilst the one who didn’t, was reprimanded. You honour God by utilising the talents God has given you and maximising your potential honours him because potential is God’s gift to you and maximising it is your gift back to him. To maximise this potential, you need consistency.
- To Please God and show him you can be faithful with the little. Just like the servants in the parable, if you want God to trust you with more, then you have to show him that you can be faithful with the little you have now. Consistency pleases God because he knows where ha wants to take you and hd knows that succeeding and maintaining that success requires consistency. Why should God give you that platform if you won’t be consistent with it? Why should he give it you if you’ll just let it die out?
How to remain consistent/ what it requires
- Clearly define your goals. It is hard to be consistent if you don’t know what requires consistency. If you’re struggling with this, then pray to God for direction.
- Budget your time. The truth is, we make time for what we want to make time for. Just like you budget your money, budget your time. Your goals and calling are very important and the time you dedicate to it is very precious so don’t misuse it
- Prioritise. There are times where you will have to prioritise working towards your goals over leisure. You are going to have to rank the things you want to do in order of importance. One missed movie night or social gathering won’t kill you but setback or stagnancy in one area can affect a lot of things in your life.
- Exercise patience. Everything in life requires patience. Keep going even if you don’t see the results yet because if you give up, you will definitely not see results. If your degree took 3-5 years, be patient with your goals. Every good high quality thing takes time. Don’t rush the process because you’ll regret it and don’t give up if the process is taking longer than you expected.
- Persist. To persist means to continue in the course of action in spite of difficulty. Keep going even if you encounter some stumbling blocks. Whatever you do, don’t quit. In fact, go harder. The owner of Canva faced over 100 rejections before she found investors for her company. She persisted in the face of difficulties and now her company is worth over $40 billion. What if she gave up?
- Be resilient. Resiliency is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Life is not always easy. You always have to get back up if you want to get somewhere. Nothing will change what happened so feel it, get a new perspective/motive and get up. There are lives and things dependent on you getting back up. It will hurt but your future will be affected by whether you get up or not.
- Eliminate comparison. Comparison can discourage you. It can cause you to use others as a measure when it comes to attaining your goals which can hinder you. Everyone has their own path, journey, and timeline and yours does not have to mirror someone else’s.
- Divorce perfectionism. With perfectionism, you set unrealistic standards for yourself that will discourage consistency. Everything is a process, you will make mistakes and learn. In fact, as you keep working towards your goal, you’ll get better in the process and the quality of your work will improve. You’ve heard the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’, it means consistently doing something will get you closer to the standard you want. Perfectionism creates unrealistic standards, aim for excellence, not perfectionism because excellence does not require perfectionism.
- Eliminate negative thinking. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. It’s everybody’s first time living and we are all trying to figure it out so don’t hinder yourself with questions like ‘What if I’m not good enough?’ or ‘What if I fail?’ You’ll never know until you try. God is happy when you take that first step and and then another because he has qualified you and you can do all things through him. If God is for you, you are good enough and you will succeed.
- Check your motive. If the reason why you are being consistent is to compete, you will not get far eventually you will get discouraged because your motive is out of selfishness and insecurities and it will not withhold. or what happens if you see another person you want to compete with? You will abandon one goal for another. So make sure that you have a clean motive.
- Break up that big goal into small steps. Your initial goal may be broad and vague which can discourage you so break it down into smaller steps. You are more likely to actually consistently put effort in because it is no longer a big, vague idea. you’ve broken it down into attainable steps. As you are consistent with those steps, you will keep climbing till you get to the top.
- Mind the company you keep. Surround yourself with serious people that want to achieve the same things you want to achieve. Surround yourself with people that will motivate you to be consistent, not people that will demotivate you.
