One of the best means of measuring success is looking at Consistency. While it’s true that every person, and every business for that matter, has both good days and bad, the fact of the matter is that a sound strategy makes for consistent results.
You can tell a lot about someone simply by looking at how they operate their life and/or their business. For example, there are some people who are always in a state of chaos. In fact, chaos has become such a large part of their life that it’s now their norm – and it is anything but consistent.
Some people mistake consistency for routine. In other words, if you were to sit down with your friend and say to him/her, “You are all over the place – very inconsistent,” they might respond with something like, “You know, I’m not one of these people who likes routine. That becomes boring!” They are correct – routine is boring, but routine is not consistency and vice versa.
Consistency can be likened to an operating system. Being a Macintosh® person, I would equate consistency to running OS X®. I have many different kinds of Mac® software, but for those programs to run successfully, they require the appropriate operating system – and that the operating system is functioning optimally. Translated back to our analysis of people, a broken mental operating system leads to flawed results in all areas of life.
Because it’s nearly impossible for a person to subjectively analyze him/herself, it should come as no surprise that very few people believe that they have a flawed operating system. In other words, the finger of blame is always pointed outward. And just in case you’re thinking that this problem (and yes, it IS a problem) is isolated to individuals, please note that many businesses and entire professions are easily “a few eggs short of a dozen.”
I am well aware of a number of professions in which the members of that profession frequently change how they operate their respective businesses. For example, there is one video rental chain that continues to change their rental policy. Why? Because it was flawed from the get-go. Their original rental policy, and for that matter, how they did business, did not anticipate changes in the marketplace or the arrival of innovative competitors. Today – they are struggling to survive.
Here is a simple fact that you must embrace: A person who frequently changes how they “function” in life and/or how they operate their business (even if the changes lead to more revenue), is a person who will NEVER attain maximal success. It won’t happen, even if they are temporarily wiping their behinds with $100 bills.
Their operating systems lack consistency, and “good enough is good enough” becomes their mantra. These folks need to be rewired. Serious mental disorders withstanding, what most people require is what I uniquely refer to as Mental Defragmentation.
To truly improve someone’s life, and subsequently – the level of their consistency, requires that you first look at someone’s modus operandi. My preference is to make the safe assumption that all of our operating systems could use a little overhaul – thus increasing the likelihood that attempts at “betterment” have a greater chance of succeeding.
Shameless Plug: The Mind Virus HEADSPACE Seminar on October 8-9, 2010 in Las Vegas (Planet Hollywood) is partially a “defragmentational” experience. It should be attended by everyone who wants more out of their life, more out of their personal experiences, and more out of their business. It is a “deparalyzing” experience that will help you to become more consistent, and become much less of your own worst enemy.
If you are a life coach, business consultant/advisor, or anyone else whose success depends on your clients working optimally, then I strongly recommend that you get your clients to the HEADSPACE Seminar. This is a no-brainer: My seminar will simply make your clients BETTER, and improve your results.
…Dr. Marc