Consistency: Slow and Steady

Ok, so it’s not a race, it’s a journey

Consistency is one of those words that makes me think of clean eating, reading a daily devotional or trying to learn to do the splits as an adult. It’s really hard and you can’t acheive it instantly.

I started university when Facebook was in it’s infancy. Suddenly this guy who is three years older than me is a (seemingly) over night sensation. He’s only gone and built one of the biggest, most influential companies of our time. There are many more examples of youngish people that seemed to have hit the ‘entrepreneurial jackpot’ over night. Most of the examples I can think of skew towards tech or social media. A sign of our times perhaps…

A culture of increased information sharing (thanks to social media), a slew of messaging around self efficacy (again, thanks Instagram) and changing attitudes to what people want from their life’s work and working conditions has meant that it’s never seemed sexier to be an entrepreneur.

Consistency is key

However, in a lot of the rhetoric surrounding entrepreneurship, something I don’t see written about often is about consistency. The ‘steady’ in slow and steady. It’s not a flashy or an exciting story, but it’s one of getting up each day and carving time out to work on building something out of nothing. I honestly believe if you have in your heart and mind something you want to create, and you consistently work at it, you can build it.

A lot of businesses can look like over night successes, but many of us don’t see the years of work (yes, read years) that has been invested. Work that goes in before any one sees anything. This – I believe – is the hard part. This is where one has to stay steady.

One foot in front of the other

I have loved ones in my life that will ask me, ‘So what’s next? What’s the goal for the next 6 months? ‘When’s xyz going to happen?’ This is a bit different from the ‘How’s your business going?‘ question. It’s an attempt to make me goal orientated, to put my money where my mouth is. While I appreciate this desire to help and I do have my own business goals, I’ve learned that it’s more realistic for me to put one foot in front of the other. If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you’ll know of the full life I lead (ha ha). As a result I’ve learned things don’t always go to plan – and I’m OK with that.

I’m also making mistakes, going back, going forward futher and then back a little bit more. So while I sometimes wince and wonder if it makes me look weak; my approach is to put one foot down and then another in front of it. It seems to be working so far. As the kids say these days: We move.

So if you’re building, don’t worry about buidling slow. Just keep building. Build steady, build strong. Build in a way that honours what you prioritise in life. Build in a way that makes you enjoy the journey and be a nice person to be around. Build in a way that allows you to rest.

I don’t think of slow and steady winning the race; I think that slow and steady means you stay on the track in the first place.