How I defeated Inconsistency
This silence on the WhatsApp group chat was deafening. Even a broadcast message promoting a ponzi scheme would have been appreciated at that moment. No one had anything to say. Why would they? I was the one that had assembled a team and convinced them that we were building the next million dollar company. Two weeks in and it just did not feel like the right fit. A month earlier, I had gotten a job to help manage the social media account of a popular consumer rights agency and fueled by the success, and well money, I was convinced that setting up an agency to help manage social media accounts for similar companies would be the right thing to do. So what did I do? I gathered a couple of my friends and told them how we could make so much money by doing well… so little. They all opted in. I mean which college student wouldn’t want to make a couple bucks just by using their phones. But then something happened. I lost the drive to start the company. My excuse? The timing, and inexperience of my team members.
I ended up making the same mistake two more times before I realized that there’s something really wrong with me. I couldn’t go ahead blaming others for my lack of consistency. I couldn’t go ahead starting ventures, drawing people in, and quitting when I felt like it. It was not fair to myself and the people that had to endure it. So, I decided to do something I hadn’t tried before — be consistent. At least for a period of time. Just enough time to prove to myself that I could do it.
The first task was finding something to be consistent with. It had to be something that was at the core of what I believed in and it also had to integrate things I was good at. Although I was unfamiliar with the Golden Circle, an idea proposed by Simon Sinek in his book “Start with the why”, at that time. I employed a similar method.
I realized that I was driven by the need to do what I love and I ultimately wanted to inspire people to also do what they love. This is my why. The “how” was a bit more tricky. I needed to decide on what particular area to focus on and the medium to best spread my message. I settled on giving tips on strategy to help entrepreneurs succeed. My first choice was producing a podcast, but I had to settle for where my audience was. I picked three platforms(Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin), well five if you include my WhatsApp stories and Facebook (thanks to Zuckerberg forcefully linking Instagram stories to the mother ship). Then, the ‘what’. Short bits of somewhat colorful inspirational and practical content.
Honestly, a couple days in and I was close to giving up. But then I got some great positive feedback on LinkedIn from someone I’m really inspired by. Other days, it was random people texting me about how the content I put out was really helpful to them, or how my consistency really amazes them. I always smiled whenever I read the consistency bit.
It’s been a couple weeks since I ended “100 days of Strategy” but I honestly feel like it hasn’t ended. I still stick to the routines and I’m able to achieve more with my day. I recently started a company that I’ve always been meaning to and I’m taking on more projects these days. Would there be days when I feel like laying in my bed and scrolling through Yara Shahidi’s Instagram feed? Definitely yes. But would I let these days halt my plans? You guessed right. NO!
Apart from employing Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory, to overcome inconsistency, you need to ensure that these three structures are put in place. Segments, Systems, and Accountability.
Segmentation helps you narrow down on what needs to be focused on. You can’t be consistent when you don’t even know what you should be consistent with. I try to segment my activities within 3 major buckets — God/Family, Career, and Hobbies. Each of the segment has an activity at every period in time that I strive to improve on. Activities, like dealing with inconsistency, could sometimes cuts across all buckets.
Systems are the routines you put in place to ensure that every action you take is leading you to the desired result. For me, I knew I had to study on strategy every night and create content for the day immediately I opened up my laptop the next morning. Setting up proper systems would replace the madness and struggle in your life with order and harmony.
Accountability is something we have all heard about at one point or the other. But many still underestimate its power. The key to any tangible personal growth is to make yourself accountable. It’s preferable to get some one to help. For me, I was held accountable by social media. I had put myself out and gotten people interested, a failure to complete at anytime would have been disastrous to my personal brand.
Make it a priority to get some help this year. You’ll be surprised by how much further and faster a little help can take you as you struggle to stay consistent and realize your dreams.
This article went on way longer than I expected. But I can’t leave without this final tip. Pick the right metrics to track your growth with. You can be tempted to use vanity metrics like popularity, likes and retweets in my case, to judge your growth. Don’t. Pick the right metrics that relate to your “why”. For me, I tried not to look at how many likes or retweets my posts had gotten. I was more impressed by people that texted me about how I had inspired them to make certain changes. That said, I believe it’s a wonderful time to make the changes required to propel, not just your career, but the entirety of your life forward. Have a great year ahead!
