Consistent Failure.
Today I write an article about consistency.
Not because I'm great at it...
but because I am not.
Most of us know that it takes consistency to get anything worthwhile. It is not some hidden wisdom that many look for their whole life.
Consistency is life lesson that we learn very early in life.
Yet many of us still struggle with being as good at it as we could. Why is that?
I don't know the answer for everyone, but I know a couple answers for myself. I'll share a couple of stories about my own failure to be consistent in just the past few weeks.
First:
I write a weekly newsletter. You are reading it right now.
The problem with the sentence above though, is that it's been 3 weeks since I've published my last one. 😆
Why didn't I write for the last three weeks? I didn't know what to write about. I thought the ideas I had may not "be good enough".
I thought I might not have enough words to make a newsletter "long enough". I thought I might be getting repetitive in the information I share. So instead of showing up and sharing my thoughts, I passed.
That is perfectionism.
It stopped me from being consistent.
Second:
I help a client get content created and published with his team. It requires me to show up every week and complete a lot of small details.
Since I am a big picture guy, that can be tough on me to do consistently. So over the last three weeks I've:
Misspelled items
Put incorrect links
Left videos in 'private' (not viewable)
...just to name a few things.
And you may say, Jake that stuff happened because you move too fast. Which may be true.
But when I make a list to follow, things get done accurately.
Execution with consistency gets things done correctly. It takes care of itself as you fail and then update your system.
So I'm not immune to a lack of consistency.
But I believe that consistency is a journey, not a destination. We have to be willing to show up today with a smile and a good attitude, even though we failed yesterday.
It's how happy people live.
Take a look at what @simon sinek has to say about the importance of consistency in life:
Let's talk about consistency in your life.
Where do you fall down?