How Consistency Improves Your Business And Keeps You Motivated
How I begin each day
From Monday to Friday, I (Corey) aspire to begin each day with a run, anywhere between 2-4 kilometres. For the most part I stick to this goal. Without a doubt, getting to this level of consistency has been a journey. But as I come to the end of my thirties, my physical and mental wellbeing have become increasingly important.
The aspiration begins with the desire to be healthy and fit for my family. I want to stick around as long as possible and be a positive role model for my son.
It’s not inspiring going through the day lacking energy and feeling physically and mentally sluggish. Consistent exercise energises me and helps me focus.
Beginning the day with an achievement is inherently motivating. Knocking out a quick run improves my outlook for the day, reframing the tasks in front of me as surmountable instead of daunting.
The easy maxim
The make-or-break of this habit has been consistency: doing that thing as much as possible. Here’s a more specific maxim:
‘Something is better than nothing.’
As a recovering perfectionist, this concept has taken years for me to embrace.
Establishing a positive habit can feel like a lot of work initially. Fortunately, little daily (or weekly or monthly) actions add up tremendously over time.
But what does this have to do with branding, marketing, and communications? Potentially, a lot!
Framed a different way, the principle of consistency can be applied to any area of life or business where improvements are desirable.
By beginning with ‘something is better than nothing’, it is difficult to go wrong:
Is communicating with your customers today better than never communicating with them? Yes.
Is communicating with your customers weekly better than monthly? Yes.
Is publishing a ‘decent’ biweekly social media post better than brainstorming the perfect idea that is never actioned? 100%.
Is putting $50 a month into targeted marketing a better strategy than hoping and praying a customer organically finds out about you? Absolutely.
Is investing in a rebrand that better represents your business better than continuing to use that outdated or irrelevant logo? In most cases, yes.
How it snowballs
The great thing about this principle is that it can be applied at any level, including on a zero-dollar budget. The principle is also scalable to your time, energy, and budget.
As the aspiration becomes a fledgling habit, your confidence will grow. So will your capacity to achieve those aspirations more quickly, consistently, and to a higher level or quality. Building on an existing habit is immeasurably easier than beginning a new one. Improvements become exponential the more ingrained that habit becomes.
Taking action
Let’s do something about this. What is your ‘better than nothing’ task you want to turn into a fruitful habit? As you write that social media post that’s been on the back-burner for a month, I’ll get this blog posted!
