Getting Over Your Consistency Problem

What’s shakin? Welcome back to All In, I’m your host Rick Jordan, snd today we’re going to talk about consistency. It’s going to be freaking amazing because I think this is going to do a lot for a lot of people, a lot for you, who are listening right now. It’s going to do a lot for you and help you get some things back on track. As we dive into this, start thinking about three people. I’m going to ask for your help here, please, start thinking about three people you can share this episode with right now, because you want them to be able to show up time and time again in their lives, for themselves, for you. If it’s a partner, a spouse,  or whatever, and you would love to see them be consistent in their lives and you know that you need a little bit more consistency in your life. You want to share this amazing, newfound awakening that you’re going to get today with those people because we don’t take sponsors on the show. The only way we can impact more people, the people you care about, is by your help by sharing this. I’m going to start with this, with consistency, because I hadn’t looked this one up. What does consistency mean? So, I asked the Google machine, I didn’t know what the actual definition was. Because for me, my definition of consistency is this, but I want you to think of what is your definition of consistency? Go ahead and think for a minute, what does it mean for me to be consistent? 

What does it mean for me to be consistent? What does it mean for me, Rick Jordan, I will tell you my definition, as you’re sitting there thinking about this, my definition that I’ve always used for myself, is showing up the same way, every single time, whatever that means. Mine is real short, real sweet. Then I looked up the actual definition of this, and this is the one that I found when I just asked Google “what is what does consistency mean?” It’s the quality or fact of staying the same at different times, let me let me just flip flop that because it’s phrased a little bit differently. The quality or fact of staying the same, especially at different times. Now compare that to what I just said, my definition was in regards to showing up the same way, every time. This one took it to another level, I was like, “Oh, man, this is beautiful!” I talk a lot about consistency, because there’s motivation, there’s the stuff you need to get started, and in some days, here’s the straight truth, you will just not be motivated. There is nothing you can do to get yourself going on those days to get you to want to do something. Consistency is doing it anyways, doing the thing that you know you want to do and doing it anyways. Because here is the straight truth, you don’t have a consistency problem.

You have a commitment problem.

It’s the commitment that prevents you from still doing whatever it is from showing up, however you want to show up, when you don’t feel motivated to do it. And you’re still doing it anyway. That consistency. Is still doing the same thing that you know you have to do to achieve whatever goal you have, and still show up regardless of whether you are motivated that day or not. Motivation is a big word that’s out there. It’s even on a lot of my posts, but motivation is to get you moving in a certain direction. Consistency keeps you staying in that certain direction, and showing up time and time and time again, motivation is getting you to want to do something to get you to a decision point and the consistency is sticking with it. You’re tracking with me so far, showing up the same way, time and time again, especially at different times as this definition shows right here. Now, what does that mean? It means that no matter what’s coming at you, no matter what’s hitting you, whether it’s marriage issues, or whether it’s another relationship problem, whether it’s work, something going on at work, something blew up. And you don’t feel like going in, maybe you had an argument with your boss the previous day, or you just really hate the dude or the girl that you’re sitting next to every day, you can’t stand them. This happens right? 

Now, how do you continue to show up and do what you’re supposed to do for your kids, for your partner, for your boss, for your own paycheck, without consistency, you will not feel motivated every single day to go to work, you will not feel motivated. Listen to this one, you will not feel motivated to be a perfect partner in your romantic relationship every single day. It is just freaking impossible. But that consistency means that you are going to show up the same way, time and time and time and time again. Did you know what I work out? There are so many times where I would much rather sit my ass in a chair and eat doughnuts. This is the truth. My people, my team can tell you this too, because there are times I’m slacking in the middle of the day to random people on the team “I want a doughnut.” It’s just the cravings that I have. It’s how I made it, I don’t know, I don’t need that much sugar but there are times I want a doughnut, I want a cookie, whatever. You want to call it leftover, I don’t think so, I think it’s just me from when I was 80 pounds heavier. Maybe I dropped the weights and now the only thing that keeps me where I’m at showing up day to day is that consistency of still working out, even when I don’t feel motivated to do so. I would rather be eating donuts. Oh my gosh , Do Rite Donuts in Chicago. Holy moly. They have a chocolate iced donut with a smudge, you can tell when they make these things. They take their thumbs or their fingers, with gloves of course, put that in the chocolate ganache, and then they just smear a finger full on half of the donut. It makes it so rich and yummy. I crave these things sometimes, but sometimes I get them because they’re yummy. I can treat myself. You do what you need to do for yourself, and still it doesn’t prevent me from working out. The thing that prevents me from working out is all the other stuff when I don’t feel motivated, because sometimes I feel motivated more, to get to work and get things done than I do with working out. Then I think, “I need to keep showing up for myself. Because if I don’t start my day right, if I don’t keep that consistent schedule, I don’t show up for anything else, the way that I need to do nothing else.” So what I’m telling you today is that you don’t have a consistency problem with whatever, you have a commitment problem.

You need commitments in order to be consistent. Are you hearing me? You need an unwavering commitment, in order to be consistent, that’s the only way you’re going to show up time again and again, especially the times when you’re not motivated. I’m going to tell you, there’s three things, three things to be consistent, and to make sure that you are consistent in your life. These are some things that I live by. These are things you have to always make sure that you are consistent on the first one. 

Number one is to be consistent on transparency. If you’re not motivated, and you have people around you, I hope you can be vulnerable and be transparent with them on those days. This is a way to keep you consistent. I understand the reasons for going to the gym. I don’t do this because it’s easy for me to work out by having the equipment at my house. Because there’s no barriers then for me. That’s a way that I learned that I need to be consistent going to a gym is actually an issue for me, because this is why when I travel in hotels, I make sure there’s a fitness center in the hotel. That way I don’t have to go anywhere. It’s the same at home. I work out at home. I have all the equipment at my house because that was a barrier that I recognized for me when I was getting my butt up and just the drive or the walk from my house to the gym was a barrier for me. I needed to make sure that I stayed with my commitments and I removed that barrier for my life, but transparency I can see why I never understood this before. Why do people have this drive right? One, you might like to be around people but you know what going to the gym does or in my case, what if I text a friend that I can be vulnerable, I’ll text “I do not feel like working out today.” And they’re like, “Cool. What’s bad about that?” And then that’s the first question to ask, if you don’t feel like doing something you’re not motivated to do. First question to ask. Well, what’s bad about it, if I don’t do this, if I don’t work out today, what’s bad about it, if I don’t go to work today? What’s bad about it, if I don’t have good interactions with my partner today? What’s bad about it, if I don’t show up for my kids today, and then go through all those reasons, right? 

This is going to help you keep those commitments and stay consistent and be transparent, not only maybe with someone else that you might need to bounce these questions off of, but also to yourself, you can ask these questions in order to help maintain transparency with yourself, because there is a state of denial that you can go into with yourself and not be transparent with yourself and shroud these things with distractions. So, ask yourself when you’re ready to make a decision that is outside of your commitments.

Ask yourself, “What’s bad about that? If I don’t do this, what’s bad about it?” And then ask yourself, “If I do it, what’s good about it?” That’s the other side of it and start to compare these because I’m still consistent in what I need to do when I say working out, that’s really like a subset of my overall goal of living healthy, of being fit, of making sure that I take care of my body. That’s a subset of that. So, if I’ve asked myself the question, “What’s bad about me not working out today?” Then I might think, this was the case this summer, I had surgery on my nose and I couldn’t work out for three weeks straight. I’m thinking, three weeks later, after working out again for several weeks, I’m still not back to where I was before my surgery. I really had this commitment to myself to be back there six weeks after my surgery. So what’s bad about it is I will not be able to show up for myself in the commitment that I made for me. Then I asked myself, “What’s good about me not working out today?”  Then I think, nothing? Or what’s good about me not working out today. Again, nothing. There is no good reason for me not to work out today. 

Sometimes I have that, because everybody has physical ailments.Sometimes I’ll wake up with a pounding headache and I think what’s good about me not working out today? And I’ll think, “Man, that’s not, it will pound even more and hurt and I might puke, which means maybe I’ll take a break today.” But when I asked myself that question, trying to get back on track after my surgery, I was like, “What’s bad about this?” it’s like, “I will not be able to show up for myself in the timeframe that I gave myself as a commitment after my surgery to get back to that point.” So be transparent, that’s the first way you need to be consistent. 

The second way is to keep a pulse on the people that are around you. Keep a pulse on your interactions with them, because there are ways. It’s not your responsibility to control their feelings, or to control their emotions. However, you can be consistent in the way that you show up for them and the way that you are perceived so that you are the same person, you are fully you, every single time you interact with that person. Then it’s up to them as far as if they want to be consistent, but you know that you are keeping the pulse on the people around you, so that you can show up for them every single time. It’s incredible, because when you’re like, “Hey, this is me, I know me, and this takes self work to get there. I know, I need to show up this way, every single time for so and so because this is the way that that person communicates best. So I will be consistent in having this relationship with that person because I understand how I need to communicate with that person, in order to have the best possible relationship I can.” That’s keeping a pulse on everybody else around you and just monitoring things. If you’re a business owner, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to keep a pulse on your team, keep a pulse in your culture, see how they’re doing, ask them questions, it’s your responsibility. That’s how you show up as a leader, is monitoring the people around you to keep consistency by keeping a pulse on those that are around you. 

The third way to be consistent in your life is executing. Meaning, that you are going to just freaking do what you said you were going to do. Be consistent in doing what you say you’re going to do. Here’s another thing, be consistent in doing it right the first time because when are you going to have time to do it again? If you know what to do and I’m talking about laziness here, I’m not talking about entrepreneurial ideas. I’m talking about things that you know how to do, that’s the right way to execution, in doing it the same way the same way every single time. regardless of if you’re feeling motivated about it, that you are executing on it the right way the first time because you’re not going to have time to do it again. Ask yourself that question. “If I don’t have time to do it right the first time. When am I going to have time to do it again?” The three things that you need to be consistent in your life is transparency with others and with yourself. 

The second one is keeping a pulse on those around you, and especially if you want to do business with your team, with your employees, with your family. 

And the third is in your execution, in executing what you know needs to be done in the way that you know, you need to do it because if you are not concerned, I’m telling you, this will happen later in your life. You will either be 80 or 90 years old, you will either rejoice over your life, or you will regret your life. Most of it is going to come down to where you found that you were not consistent in your life, but you go deeper than that and you realize, “Man, I had a commitment problem.” You don’t have a consistency problem. You have a commitment problem. Take that and show up the way that you know that you’re supposed to show up from here on out for yourself and everybody else around you.

Thank you.

Important Links

• Do-Rite Donuts & Chicken