Everyone says, “Consistency is the most important aspect of success.” But within that — there’s a critical piece missing…
I wrote a story about consistency being the secret to overnight success. And that’s true.
If you consistently work towards your goal every day, you will get that famous “overnight success”.
But there is a crucial step before working consistently toward your goal. First, you have to figure out what you want in life: what your goal is, and what your values are.
If you don’t think about those things first, you will follow a goal society decided for you.
We are all influenced by other people, how we grew up, and our environment.
So if you don’t find your own goals and values first, you could have a goal you don’t want.
You could work towards a goal from someone else. You can be consistent and you could reach that goal, but you will lack the motivation and you will be unhappy.
“The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.”
— Brian Tracy
You Need Clear Goals
To prevent you from consistently doing the wrong thing, you should take a step back and think about what you want to achieve in life.
Do you know the saying that you can consistently climb the ladder but if the ladder is leaned on the wrong wall then you will still not get where you want to go?
Is the ladder leaning on the wall you want to climb?
What do you want?
If you don’t know it, someone else or society will decide it for you.
Just like when your friends’ group has to decide on which restaurant you will go to, if you don’t know or don’t care, then someone else will decide.
You decide to go out of your comfort zone to look for your goals.
Try new things.
It doesn’t have to be one purpose forever. A lot of people have different goals for different stages in their lives.
Ask For Help
If you are stuck on the ladder to your goal, maybe you will need help from someone else.
Other people have different opinions and different views of things and the world, maybe you need a change of perspective.
Sometimes other people see you completely differently than you.
They could sense something is bothering you, which you don’t know or you don’t want to admit yet.
- What do people usually ask you?
- What are you known for in your group of friends?
- What childhood toys did you like the most? Ask your parents what you loved to do.
- To what kind of museums do you go to on a city trip?
- What topic can you not stop talking about?
I’m sure your friends and family have some ideas.
“Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong.”
— Les Brown
Make a Plan
I love making plans.
Don’t overdo it like I did and procrastinate by making them.
The next step after you found your purpose is to separate it into smaller goals.
One of the number 1 causes of procrastination is that the task looks too big.
This is not gonna happen to you.
You figure out the next few steps you can take to get you closer to your goal.
If you want to be a famous influencer, your first steps can look like this:
- find role models on Social Media
- choose a platform and a name for your page
- research or invest in a course on how to grow on Social Media
- follow some pages for the topic you want to post about
- evaluate your target group and research them
Those are all steps you can do in a day.
What helps me in doing the next steps to my goal is to have a ToDo list of the tasks, and I block time for them every week in my calendar.
I use my Sundays to write my newsletter and a new article. This is my time block to write. For the creation of my Instagram post, I have Tuesday morning blocked. This fits into my weekly schedule with university and other obligations.
I’m not doing anything else in these hours.
Plan your week and add some time blocks for working on your goal. Have a clear task for each of them, or else procrastination can set in.
Doing those consistent steps toward your goal is what will get you your overnight success. Be patient!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
— Aristotle
Repeat the Search
Life is changing.
You are changing.
So your goals and values are changing too.
Once in a while take a step back and evaluate your life.
Like I said before: you can have different goals in your different stages of life.
That’s totally normal.
You are changing and growing. If a goal is too small or doesn’t fit you anymore because your values changed, then it’s alright to change your path.
At some point, my goal was to become a programmer for useful games (to help kids learn…).
But after the job as a programmer led me into a quarter-life crisis I came back to the hidden dream I had before: studying Architecture, which I was too afraid to admit back then.
We are all growing and changing.
Your view of the world changes. Your values change.
Conclusion
Before you start to plan and take consistent action, you should make sure that you are on the right path.
Evaluate if the path you are currently on is one you chose and not someone for you.
In our childhood and teenage years we get influenced a lot by other people, and we don’t even recognize it until we are unhappy with our choices and life direction.
I always thought I had to have a 100% clear goal and purpose to start taking action. But that’s a waste of time.
As soon as you know the direction, you need to take action.
Through action, you grow and get a clearer view of the path in front of you.
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