The Not-so-secret Truth About Consistency

Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." And, while he's been dead for a couple of thousand years, he had a good point. It's easy to move from one big project or event to another without realizing that life is lived and success is built in all of the small moments in between. 

That huge goal to build a thriving company or earn a million dollars will only come to fruition if you get up and get dressed in the morning. That meeting where you get your first HUGE client will only happen if you answer the phone. The big moments are exciting and motivating, but they aren't the thing.

The thing is showing up daily, slogging through the weeds, trying to make sense of the puzzle set in front of you, then going to bed and waking up to do the same thing the next day. Sometimes doing the thing feels good. Sometimes it feels like filing business taxes or having hard conversations. But it's in the small moments between the mountain tops that you become who you're meant to be.

Think of all the young, beautiful musicians and actors who hit it big at a young age, flame out, get into drugs, or worse. They hit the mountain top of celebrity and professional success and found out that it didn't make them better, wiser, or more confident. They walk off the stadium stage or away from the movie set and are still the same scared kids they were before. 

You and I are scared kids sometimes too. And do you know how we get unscared? Experience. We gain confidence and self-esteem through consistency. When we do the right thing over and over and provide excellent service and have breakthroughs, and build strong teams. With wisdom and experience, we learn that what the world thinks about us has little bearing on how we feel about ourselves or who we are.

In fact, as far as Aristotle is concerned, who we are directly results from what we do. So let's keep manifesting the mountaintops, but keep our heads out of the clouds. Let's keep casting a vision far into the future while keeping our feet firmly on the ground. 

Journaling Prompt

What three things can you do this quarter to help you build successful habits? Take a few minutes to devise a plan for implementing these habits this week.