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The Importance of Consistency for Sucess

Guest post by: Stefan Doering

Article Overview: Consistency is the cornerstone of success for yourself and your business. Find out how to apply consistency to your business practices and obtain substantial results.

The Importance of Consistency for Sucess

Tuesday night I was watching the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS. Sitting next to the Obamas was one of the honorees: Bruce Springsteen. It was super cool watching him get honored by all the amazing people, having grown up listening to Springsteen and now working with his PR agent. President Obama paid tribute earlier to Springsteen's winning the laureate by saying, "I am the president, but he's ‘The Boss'".

How Springsteen or anyone achieves unreasonable success is through consistency. Consistency in most of their actions.

I learned this lesson in the early 90s when I met a man named Tom Schutte. Tom is president of Pratt Institute here in New York. Each morning we would see each other at the gym. He would be there at 7AM sharp swimming his laps for one hour.

Every day. No matter where he was or if it was snowing. When he travels he makes sure he stays at a hotel with a swimming pool. No matter what he gets his laps in.

Tom is now in his 70s and we've become good friends over the years. He has sat on the board of one of my companies and having gotten to know him has helped me really see the inner workings of a truly successful person.

He once told me that he doesn't know where he would be without his swimming routine in the morning. He found that the days he did not swim (only a few a year) he feels completely out of balance.

But that is how he does everything. He has his weekly meetings with his senior staff, monthly meetings with his board of trustees, and is constantly in meetings looking to raise capital for the school. His energy and enthusiasm is greater than most people half his age.

Tom has been acknowledged for really turning around Pratt into the major success it is today.

And Tom knows that swimming is the cornerstone of all this. He knows what most high achievers know, and that is it is the consistency that produces powerful results over time.

The more consistent, the greater the results.

When you apply this to your marketing, follow ups, project management, networking events, public speaking, team building, relationship management, financial management, product research and development, environmental and social consciousness, and most importantly: your word, you will absolutely see the results. Quickly.

I suspect you know this already, but are you doing it?

Here's the deal: we will always be lacking consistency in something. Always. The point is not to become consistent in everything, but to find those crucial points where it is paramount in who you are as a person and for your business.

For me it is consistency in planning and organizing my projects.

Since we are now wrapping up ‘09, you may plan on putting together your annual New Year's Resolutions. But if you fail to develop a routine for consistency, all your planning and intending will create consistency... in the lack of results!

So to wrap up ‘09, you may want to join both Bruce and Tom by making consistency a key part of your New Year.

Action Steps for the Week:

Make a list of the top five areas you want to be more consistent in. Make sure they are basic and easy to deal with. Not things like, "make more sales." Instead try, "Approach three new prospects each week."

BTW: If you are not consistent in exercising and/or eating well, this should be #1. No exceptions!

Next, take these top five and select two of them, three max.

Then make a routine to ensure they get handled on a regular basis, like no kidding.

To do this effectively, schedule these routines into your calendar now. Put the day(s) and time(s) you will do them going forward. Then protect them from getting moved around.

Done consistently, within three weeks these new routines should become habit.

WARNING: you will do this easily in the beginning. Eventually you will become tempted to give yourself permission to skip a day. Do NOT do this!

Once you skip a day, you'll give yourself permission again. And again. Very soon it will be off your agenda completely and you'll be back to your old way of doing things.

Instead, when you get the urge to skip, remind yourself the importance of consistency and why you are doing what you are committed to doing.

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Article Tags: business, consistency, results, success



Related Forum Posts
Anything Will Do.. - ...well, not quite anything. Personally, I like to see metappletonhors in my daily work and link what I experience to the blog topic. For example, I have a management blog. In it I might write about how today when I was out walking, I saw grass that had spilt our across the pavement where it hadn't been looked after. My link then is to how things can get out of control in a business you manage when you take you eye off things for a while - then it becomes a big job. Then I spin a bit more out of that. If I wanted to be very business focused, I would sign up to some specific RSS feeds inbound, using something like Feedreader to send me pressreleases, other people's news so that I don't have to hunt for it etc. Consistency of posting and varied, interesting thought provoking posts are what keeps a blog alive. Regards
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategies - [quote="PromoBusiness":1g6hv9hl]I would honestly say, don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Years ago I was so proud to say that I could 'sell' to anyone in any industry. Over time I realized that certain industries were much more lucrative in terms of commissions and order quantity. I think the same idea definitely exists in internet advertising - if you are looking to one or two single sources of online marketing, you aren't seeing the whole picture. Keep with it, and try and make some kind of consistant effort.[/quote:1g6hv9hl] Yes, that's the best approach. While it's important to learn and understand one strategy at a time, it's also just important to broaden your efforts. Let's face it, we can't all be masters at any one strategy. It's best to diversify and make the most of our marketing efforts and reach the widest range of people as possible. Consistency is the key. Keep at it everyday, and you'll see results.
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategies - [quote="Alan Mater":39r4ytcq][quote="PromoBusiness":39r4ytcq]I would honestly say, don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Years ago I was so proud to say that I could 'sell' to anyone in any industry. Over time I realized that certain industries were much more lucrative in terms of commissions and order quantity. I think the same idea definitely exists in internet advertising - if you are looking to one or two single sources of online marketing, you aren't seeing the whole picture. Keep with it, and try and make some kind of consistant effort.[/quote:39r4ytcq] Yes, that's the best approach. While it's important to learn and understand one strategy at a time, it's also just important to broaden your efforts. Let's face it, we can't all be masters at any one strategy. It's best to diversify and make the most of our marketing efforts and reach the widest range of people as possible. Consistency is the key. Keep at it everyday, and you'll see results.[/quote:39r4ytcq] Don't put all your eggs in one basket but don't spread yourself too thin either. If you try too many things at once you will end up getting nowhere with any one of them. A nice balance is key.


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