If I tell you there is a guaranteed way to succeed in anything you do, would you take the advice and do what I’m about to tell you? The fact is that most people know what they need to do to become successful, whether it is to build a profitable business or to become a writer, we all know what we need to do to get there, but most people just aren’t willing to do it.
In the year 2000, one of the most successful investors in the world, Warren Buffett, was invited for an interview at Columbia University during an investing class.
And in response to a question about how to prepare for an investing career, Buffett told the students:
“Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
Warren Buffett
You can read the advice Buffett gave to the students from this article on CNBC.
And that, my friend, is the key to your success.
No, it is not about reading every day, it is about being consistent.
For Buffett, reading is important because you need to acquire knowledge and understand the market to make a good investment.
But if you are a blogger, reading alone won’t make you successful. Instead, you need to be consistent with your publishing.
The same goes if you want to build a fit body with 6-pack abs. You need to be consistent with your exercise routine.
You can’t hit the gym once and then expect to lose all the additional fat on your belly. And don’t expect you to have 6 pack abs the next day.
Nothing great was ever achieved without consistency.
If you can be consistent with what you do, then your success is almost guaranteed.
Why? Here are a couple of reasons…
1. Success isn’t created overnight
Many people get it wrong. They have been brainwashed by the media to believe that success is created overnight, which is not.
Success is created over time, not overnight.
And because things are not happening instantly, you need to be consistent with it. If you are not consistent, you will never get to see the result you want.
Can you train for one day and then expect yourself to be the Olympic champion? Think about extraordinary people like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Do you think they train just for a day or two to achieve the extraordinary results in their basketball career?
No, they trained every day. They trained more than most people do, and that’s what separated them from the rest. They are extremely consistent with their training progress.
You have to do the same. No matter what kind of success you are looking for, regardless of whether it is to build a successful blog, to become a best-selling author, or to run a profitable billion-dollar company, you have to be consistent in what you do.
2. Results are exponential
Like Warren Buffett said above, results will build up like compound interest. Hence, it is not like you work hard for one day, and then suddenly, you will gain big success the next day.
Small successes build up over time. Therefore, the results you get are not linear, they are exponential.
Take a look at the graph below:
The red line indicates linear growth, while the green and blue lines indicate exponential growth.
Meaning, when you first work hard on the things you want, like building a successful blog or getting fit, you will not see any significant results at first.
But if you keep doing and be consistent, you will eventually see some small results. And if you keep pushing yourself and stick to your plan, you will create significant results like what is shown on the graph.
Take blogging as an example. When you first started a blog and publish your first article, guess what, nothing happens.
The next day when you check your blog’s traffic, it will be zero. No one has ever visited or read your blog post. You spent hours to write the article, publish it on your blog, but nobody reads it.
If you continue to write quality articles and publish them on your blog, after a month, still, you will find that not many people have visited your blog, maybe just a few people a day.
This is where most people will give up. After putting in a month of hard work but they did not get the results they expected. They feel dejected, lose hope, and in the end, they give up on their blog.
But if you are consistent, you will then continue to work on your blog. You choose to continue to work on your blog and keep publishing.
You will then slowly see the increase in your blog’s traffic. People started to get notice of your blog and what you do.
Traffic will then come. Your blog will grow. And eventually, you will get the results you desire.
However, it won’t come to you overnight. It is not going to happen linearly. It will happen exponentially. This is why you need to be consistent in what you do.
3. Being consistent builds your credibility
If you want to succeed in what you do, you need to be consistent with your message and everything you are trying to tell the world.
Imagine you go to a restaurant and they serve good food. You love the food so much that you decided to bring a friend there next week.
And when the second time you dine out in the restaurant, the waiter isn’t as polite as in your first visit. And the food is horrible. Now, do you still want to visit this restaurant? Most likely not.
It lacks consistency. It is not what you have expected. And that is why the restaurant will fail.
Think about McDonald’s. They don’t make the best burgers in the world, but they certainly make the most consistent burgers. You can expect to eat the same taste of burger anywhere you go in your country. Consistency builds credibility.
The same principle applies to everything you do. If you are a blogger, be consistent with your voice and talk about only certain categories of topics on your blog. You don’t want to be covering everything and lack consistency in your blog.
Do you now understand why consistency is important in what you do?
Now that you know the key to success is to be consistent with what you do, but how do you do that exactly?
Here are a few tips to help you cultivate the habit of consistency…
1. Focus on the progress
You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to make progress. Many people fail to be consistent because they focus too much on the results. They aim at producing the best instead of making progress.
If you are a blogger, just blog. If you are making art, just make. You don’t need to be perfect to be consistent. The key is to make progress.
I write and publish about 2 blog posts every week. There are days when I don’t feel like doing it, but I pushed myself to publish. The point is that some of my articles are good, some are so-so, and some are great.
It doesn’t matter. All I do is to stick to my schedule, write, and publish when the time comes.
It’s a numbers game. I don’t focus on the result, instead, I focus on the progress. I make sure I write and publish 2 articles every week. And that’s how I build this blog and get this far.
If you focus on the result and you don’t see it, you will lose your motivation and feel that your effort isn’t going to be worth it.
It doesn’t matter if your work isn’t world-class. You just need to make progress. The more you work, the more world-class work you will deliver.
Just like being a YouTuber. You need to be consistent with your publishing. Some of your videos may not perform, but some will. The key is to keep publishing until you get it.
Read: How to Measure Your Progress to Effectively Achieve Your Goals
2. Show up even when you don’t feel like it
I know, sometimes, you don’t have the mood and you just want to do something else. But trust me, when you don’t feel like doing the work, you just need to do it.
You have to have the ability to grind through the boredom. Do it even when you don’t feel like it.
For example. When I don’t feel motivated, I still stick to my publishing schedule. I still write, but instead of writing a 2,000 words article, maybe I will just write 1,000 words. I do the minimum.
If your routine is to do 50 push-ups, and when you don’t feel like doing it, just do the minimum, say 10 push-ups.
You have to keep the progress going even when you don’t feel like it. Just do it.
That’s how you build the habit.
3. Never compare
If you want to break the consistent cycle, just compare what you do with others. When you compare, you will feel like what you do is just a waste of time and it is not worth it.
You can’t compare if you want to succeed. Your comparison only makes you feel lousy. If you want to compare, just compare it to yourself. See how far you have come and how much you have accomplished.
But don’t compare it with other people. Because usually when we compare, we tend to compare our “journey” with other people’s “destination”.
Meaning, we don’t compare ourselves with people who are still working in the progress. Instead, we often compare our results with people who are at the top. And when you do that, you only see the tip of the iceberg.
If I’m comparing my blog with other successful blogs like James Clear or Neil Patel, guess what, I will feel dejected. Because I don’t see their hard work and assume that they started that way.
Therefore, stop playing the comparison game. Other people are getting on with their stuff. You should do the same – just get on with yours.
Conclusion
You can achieve any success you want if you have the right strategies and be consistent with your actions. Sadly, most people don’t do it.
They are not 100% committed and only choose to do things when they feel motivated. Hence, they break the law of consistency.
Never let this happen to you. If you are serious about achieving the success you want, be consistent. Show up every day.