Christine Casey ~ Change Begins with Choice

If you study successful people, you’ll find one trait they all have in common is consistency.

Consistency creates habits.  Habits make the difference between success or failure.  Did you know that quitting is a habit?  And, every time you quit, you risk damage to your self-esteem, and send your subconscious a message that you’re helpless.  You are not helpless.  If you’ll take action every time you feel like quitting, you will gain confidence that seems to make your next step easier. Consistency takes discipline and for some, this just isn’t an easy task.  Sometimes, just doing those small, often mundane tasks on a daily basis can make all the difference in driving you forward.

Being consistent is a tough job for most people, especially if it will be asking for major efforts and participation. Think about this: Unless you are willing to try to do something beyond what you have been doing, you will never receive the maximum growth that you need for your growth. Expand your expertise. No matter what you do, being consistent will lead you toward success!

Life happens and sometimes, the routine demands of life will overload you, or unexpected events will blow in from nowhere and threaten to drive you off course.  When such things do occur, confront the urge to give up.  From time to time, you’ll be tempted to rationalize, “Well, I’ll quit for now, but I’ll get back on track tomorrow or next week”  Don’t do it!  Instead, take immediate action to get you working toward your task before the temptation to quit gets too strong.

If you happen to own your own business, what can you do to ensure you stay consistent (in your business)?  One would be to make the decision to be consistent. Another would be to establish a daily schedule and set specific time to work on your business.  If your business is more than a hobby, realistically, you need to plan to work on your business a minimum of 4-5 days a week, for at least a couple of hours a day.  Keep in mind, it’s okay to work a business part-time or full-time, but never sometimes.

P.S. I appreciate you stopping by and would enjoy hearing your thoughts on consistency,  so, please feel free to share in the comment box below. And, if you have found my post to be of value to you, and feel it would also be to others, then please free free to share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

* This post was originally published in May 2010.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with your “To-Do” list, and consequently did nothing?  We all have.

So, how can you get past this obstacle, and accomplish your tasks?  I have found that an approach to tackling any new project-and certainly a major life change-can be found in this Chinese proverb, which is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

You can always find time to do one thing.  And, then another, and yet another.  By focusing on one step at a time, what you’ll find is that you create a bit of momentum that progressively brings  you closer to a goal — with each step, your life is slowly being transformed.

Personally, I have discovered that by writing down tasks (also known as “things to do”) every day, with my most important at the top, I keep focused and find that I accomplish much more than I would have otherwise.  Most people initially resist this suggestion, yet there’s an important reason to doing this: When you write down each step, you remove the guesswork and know your next step, so it’s more difficult to procrastinate.  And, you’ll consistently be reminded of what you need to do, and you’ll stay focused when life happens and something distracts you.

Believe me, if you will do this each day, you will keep moving and create momentum — and will be amazed at what you are able to get done each and every day…what a feeling!!!