We hear plenty of gimmicks – become rich in these 3 easy steps or lose 20 lbs. with this easy diet. There are always quick and “easy” methods thrown at you for your quick turnaround to your better self. The issue becomes these quick fixes are also quick to fade away.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, I have no gimmick. Instead, I have two words that I view as the most important factors in someone’s long-term success – consistent and deliberate.
Consistent answers the question of when to work on your better self and deliberate answers the question of where you should be investing your finite amount of time and effort?
If anyone has read the book Grit, there’s a quote from Dan Chambliss on what it takes for excellence. “Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.”
Small skills, small activities constantly executed on. Not one big aha moment. Not one month of insane dedication. Instead, little by little, consistently executing on what is needed to be accomplished. As time progresses, consistency turns those actions into habits. When habits take form, consistency moves into the driver’s seat on the path to a better tomorrow.
With consistency behind the wheel, the other focus is understanding where this road shall lead. Enter the term deliberate.
Being deliberate equates to being intentional with where time and energy is invested to align with your authentic path to success. The deliberate path creates efficiency in how we’re trying to grow for our unique better tomorrow – mitigating interruption of outside noise and influence pulling you off your authentic path to success. Being deliberate keeps effort focused on the path you’ve set out to create on how you want to define your own unique definition of success.
No gimmicks, no shortcuts. Two words that focus on long-term, sustainable success. Be consistent with your behavior and deliberate with your action to align your time and effort with your authentic success.
Take your step: utilize the power of pause to reflect on one aspect of your life you’re striving for improvement in. Challenge yourself with 2 questions:
- Am I being consistent in my time and effort spent on what I know it takes to grow in this aspect of my life?
- Is the time and effort I invest each day aligning with where I want to grow?
Based on how you feel you can answer these two questions, start thinking through ideas on how there can be more alignment with where you’re trying to grow to ensure there is a consistent and deliberate approach.