The Power of Consistency in Shaping Success!

If you are persistent you will get it. If you are consistent you will keep it.

                                                                                             ~ Anonymous

For aeons, work ethic is considered to determine the outcome of one’s efforts. A poor work ethic fails to yield the result that one seeks to achieve. This is a universally accepted notion which hardly anyone can rebut. Good work ethics almost always bear the fruits, sooner or later.

Several important components coalesce together in what could be termed as good work ethics: consistency being one of the prime components. Consistency, however, is a much-talked about and less-practiced trait. Most of us fail to offer the respect that consistency in work deserves. But consistency is something that separates the ‘ordinary’ from the ‘extraordinary’.

There are plenty of examples that explain how consistency has led to incredible success in life. Read the life stories of sportspersons, such as Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Lionel Messy, Sachin Tendulkar, Nadia Comaneci, Serena Williams, or successful technocrats like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Larry Page. You can cite n-number of examples to illustrate the significance of consistency in work from different spheres of human activity.

Usain Bolt is an archetypical example synonymous with consistency. Behind the World Record setting 100m sprint in 9.58 seconds is his years of consistent training seeped in resilience and often, agonising work ethic. Mere 9.58 seconds is all that he took to create history, but for this he has worked more than 9 years consistently. Since the time he began his training, Bolt never stopped doing what he loved doing. Like his idols Michael Johnson and Don Quarrie, Bolt knew the charisma of consistency. As per his own submission, Bolt would eschew going to movies or evening hangouts with his friends to ensure that his training is not compromised.

Michael Phelps is another shining example of the power of consistency. He is the record holder of the highest number of Olympic Medals in the individual events category. He holds a total of 28 medals out of which 23 are Golds. His training regime resembles that of Bolts’ in terms of punctuality, resilience, painstaking, and most of all, consistency.

Consistency, however, doesn’t come without a cost. The oft-cited cliché, ‘No Pain, No Gain’, is the first cousin of consistency. Consistency demands renouncement of mundane pleasures. Those who want to make a mark and leave a legacy in their field exhibit the nerve to let go of life's small indulgences. Bolt himself made sacrifices to honour the value of consistency. Likewise, Phelps followed a strict training schedule to achieve what he eventually achieved. Sleep and swim were part of his training regime. Most of the time Phelps is either sleeping or swimming.

Robert Collier, the celebrated American author of the seminal books, ‘The Prosperity Bible’ and ‘Riches Within Your Reach!’, once said, “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”.  The real challenge is not intermittent backbreaking work schedules; the real challenge is making that small effort each day of every month of a year (or years) till the goal is achieved.  

Through consistency in work ordinary people can bring phenomenal turnaround in their lives. This celebrated trait is especially good for those who find difficulty in learning and is a gift of the god particularly for those who rule themselves out from achieving something which they think is impossible to achieve.

The power of consistency erodes the flaws in persons. Michael Jordan, the famous Basketball player, failed an insane number of times before learning the perfection in basketing the ball. He ironed out the flaws in his technique with consistency and went on to become the most celebrated basketball player of his era. It is, therefore, rightly said that a few months of consistency in work can put you much ahead in your life. Just imagine the scale of success you can achieve with years of consistency!