I am a native Vermonter and my favorite baseball team when I left Vermont and moved to Colorado 13 years ago was the Boston Red Sox. The past several years, the Red Sox, formerly often referred to as the Red Flops have become a very consistently winning club and in the playoffs most years. To me, that is when consistency is exciting. You expect your team to be in the hunt for a championship ring every year.
When I moved to Colorado, I fell in love with beautiful Coors field, where the Rockies baseball team calls home. It took a bit longer, but I also became a fan of the often-woeful Rockies. It was almost as if I was reliving my early years as a Red Sox fan. My son Brad once asked me, “Really? A baseball team with purple uniforms?” I laughed at that and explained that “purple mountain majesty” was the real deal in Colorado.
In the thirteen years that I have lived here, the Rockies have made the playoffs three times. I think their winning percentage has been above 50% four times. Consistent? Yes, consistently not very good! But the Rockies do have stars! Carlos Gonzalez is a former batting champion and all-star. He is a gold glove winner and at times spectacular. He may be the streakiest player that I have ever watched. Carlos is either hot or cold. When he is hot, you can count on a highlight reel of plays. When he is cold, his slumps are painful to witness.
On the contrary, DJ LeMahieu is a picture of consistency. Yes, he makes some spectacular defensive plays as you would expect a Gold Glove second baseman to do, but he does it without glitz and glitter. He is stoically intense. And he doesn’t hit with a great deal of power, but he is a consistent .300 hitter. DJ’s batting average never fluctuates a great deal. He is consistent, but not very flashy or necessarily exciting to watch.
John Maxwell’s Law 4: The Law Of Consistency – Motivation Gets You Going – Discipline Keeps You Growing is a thought-provoking law. It compares consistency with performance bursts. His tagline, motivation gets you going – discipline keeps you going is very interesting. Inspiration can get you going, but execution keeps you going. So many people are dreamers but not doers. It doesn’t mean they don’t have the ability, but it does say that they don’t put one foot in front of the other each day to keep moving in the right direction.
John asks some questions that I believe are very pertinent and then provides a comparison that I may not wholeheartedly agree with but is undoubtedly worth illustrating. These are excellent questions and though may seem elementary, if you ask yourself and are honest with the answers, may be very revealing. These seven questions are:
1. Do you continuously procrastinate on essential tasks?
2. Do you require coaxing to do small chores?
3. Do you perform duties to get completion merely?
4. Do you regularly talk negatively about your work?
5. Do efforts of friends to encourage you irritate you instead?
6. Do you start projects and abandon them?
7. Do you avoid self-improvement opportunities?
After answering these questions, you should conclude how consistent you are. You may determine that you are very consistent, sometimes consistent or rarely consistent. I hesitate to list never consistent, but I suppose that could be the case with some people. Life must be fascinating for those folks. John uses a comparison model to further illustrate the value of consistency compared to more short-term performance.
The comparison is between being goal-focused and growth-focused is shown in this table:
Goal Consciousness
Growth Consciousness
Focuses on the destination
Focuses on the journey
Motivates you and others
Matures you and others
Seasonal
Lifelong
Challenges you
Changes you
Stops when the goal is reached
Keeps going beyond the goal
Waits for growth to come
Takes responsibility for growth
Learns only from mistakes
Learns before mistakes
Depends on good luck
Relies on hard work
Since I am a goal-setter, I don’t agree 100% with this table but also believe that it remains accurate when you are a hybrid between goal and growth conscious. I feel I am one of those people. What about you? Where do you live in this table? Are you on either the left or right all the time or do you cross over?
The beauty of being both goal and growth-oriented is that wins can become habits and then become who you are and not just what you have done. When we win and then relax, we lose that magical momentum that carries us forward. Don’t get stuck in the goal consciousness state so that when you achieve, you also stop. Keep going and when you win, don’t rest on your laurels, and stay too long in celebration mode. Keep moving forward! You’ll never know how far you can go unless you remain in motion.