Consistency: your new best friend in sustainable change

Consistency is one of the most important and critical elements of success. You can have the very best of intentions and desires in your life, career, health, relationships and lack of consistency can be enough to derail your progress.

Consistently showing up to train for a marathon will reap far greater rewards than going out with gung-ho attitude and trying to run as far as possible 3 or 4 times before putting off training until a couple of weeks before the race. It takes much LESS energy to show up consistently in smaller increments than the energy you use in big impressive bursts of effort that are not sustainable.

Inconsistency has a cost. You lose energy and you lose momentum. Momentum is a vital tool in creating ANY change and without it you’re dead in the water. It doesn’t only affect the one off time you decide not to take action, it impacts on it all. The one time you decide not to work out, or to have the conversation that scares you, or to raise your hand in that meeting, you stall your momentum and a lot more effort is needed to get started again. If you layer in the way your brain might well start challenging you with unhelpful thoughts (oh, I can leave it one more day, it’s not going to hurt not to share – I don’t have anything to say anyway) your momentum grinds to a disappointing halt.

Keep showing up consistently and you’ll have more energy for what you’re aiming for AND for having fun or taking on other challenges because you won’t be wasting energy stalling and restarting your engines.

What are you going to commit to on a consistent basis?

(Image by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash)

Where is your thinking reducing your energy?

This morning I had a good look at one of the houses behind ours while I was doing my stretches. One of them has recently been redeveloped to add a room in the roof and I think it’s been done very tastefully.

I was reminded of a conversation with a neighbour shortly after the giant scaffold tower with the big roof protection cladding went up around. He was getting stressed because as far as he was concerned the work wasn’t being done in line with the planning application and it was bigger/more obtrusive/worse than he had been led to believe and wasn’t it ‘awful’. I’d started to get sucked into his story but stopped myself by reminding myself that actually it wasn’t my problem. If it wasn’t in line with planning, they would have to fix it or revise the planning until it was. It was only a load of scaffold and we wouldn’t have a clue what it was really going to look like until that came down.

His energy was all over the place and I don’t think he’d have much energy left after spending it all getting worked up about something he couldn’t control and didn’t even exist yet except in his mind.

My energy would have gone the same way but I stopped the energy drain! 🤣 I want to use my limited supply of energy to do the things I want to do in the world, to be the person I want to be for the people I love and care about, and the people I work with and for. I don’t want to use it getting worked up about things that are out of my control.

It was a powerful reminder – and it will be every morning I look at that house!

What pain has taught me about getting rid of things I tolerate

The tap shoes were out in full force tonight for the first time in years. It was challenging, fun and frustrating all at once trying to learn steps, fit them together and hear the music (tap shoes en masse are very loud 😂).

My feet are so SORE now!!

I’d forgotten when I packed them away from the last show that I’d intended to buy new ones because they are a whole shoe size too small for me. I even have a pair only half a size bigger in my collection of ‘stage shoes’ (yes, I have a collection 😂). But those only have taps on the toes – not good when you want a full on ‘stamp’. I could have had the heel taps moved from one pair to the other. I could have bought new ones. I did nothing.

There’s a phrase I really appreciate ‘how you do one thing is how you do everything’. It’s not absolute truth and it is a worthy challenge that I like to reflect on if I notice something that’s caused me to get stuck or stopped me from really walking in my best emotional power.

How I do one thing is how I do everything.

Where else have I noticed discomfort, pain, or things I’m tolerating needlessly? I didn’t need to put up with the pain of wearing shoes too small for me. I could have invested in a new pair and done something about it.

I didn’t.

The result is I have sore feet AGAIN. 😤

The result is tomorrow I will have sore feet on another level of pain or have to do a tap rehearsal without tap shoes.

I’m so over tolerating things that are utter rubbish for absolutely no reason other than I didn’t do anything. I always had a choice. Sort it or leave it. For whatever strange reason I decided to put up with it and not take the small action needed to sort it out.

No more!!!!

I’ve set an intention to try out the shoes without heel taps tomorrow. If they fit I’ll get the other taps moved. If not, I’m ordering a new pair.

My feet will be MUCH happier. And so will I!

And I also know that this one small action will create momentum in enabling me to remove other things I’ve been tolerating from my life, from my work and career, from my surroundings. If I don’t I know it will continue to have an impact on how I show up in my life and career.

No more Little Miss Put-Up-With-It 😂 . Time to take a stand for ME.

What if your greatest obstacle to your success is the way you think?

‘I believe I can do anything if I want to!’

One of my clients said this to me today as she admitted in the past she would have had more fear and what she believed about herself would have stopped her. In the time we’ve partnered together she’s moved from inaction to action and got past stories that stopped her and created new stories that help her become open to possibilities where she didn’t think there were any before.

‘Sometimes you don’t know until you try.’

I’m so proud of how far she’s come and of her dreams for her future. I know the woman she is becoming, the future her, is capable of doing extraordinary things when she stands in her power and self-leadership.

I’m not sharing this to brag. I’m sharing this because this is what naturally happens when I’m in partnership with someone who is 100% committed to their new direction, developing their leadership or finding fulfilling work. I bring 100%, they bring 100% and it is POWERFUL. I know this experience from the other side from working with some incredible leaders as a partner. MAGIC happens when you both bring 100% commitment to a space. It happens in career change coaching, in leadership development and in creating a life you love.

I spent some time with her drawing out her big dreams for the future and how it’s going to be full of amazing possibilities. She inspired me!! And I know she will come from the place of these dreams as she steps forward into the future.

Your dreams are a powerful place to come from.

Your dreams might feel hard to access if you’ve not stretched those muscles for a while. That’s OK – sometimes it’s quick, sometimes it takes more time. There is no rush.

I’d love to help you draw out YOUR big dreams.

Your big dreams for finding work you love. Your big dreams for your career development. Your big dreams for adventures in life.

If you’re ready to dream bigger than you have before, get in touch and let’s talk.

(Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash)

Why your choice of words will make or break your success

I CAN do it!

Or

I CAN’T do it!

My daughter is learning so much at the moment like doing up cardigan buttons and so often gets frustrated because she feels like she can’t do it.

‘If you tell yourself you can’t do it, then you’re less likely to do it. How about saying ‘I can do it’ and see what happens?’

It kind of fell out my mouth one day. Probably to dodge another meltdown! 😂

She started repeating it like a mantra as she struggled with the buttons again.

I wish I hadn’t been surprised. I’m delighted I was surprised!

She proudly stood up, beaming all over her gorgeous little face, and said ‘See? I CAN do it!’

YES!!!!! 🙌

**

Jump ahead.

I get in the shower this morning. It’s insanely cold. Freezing!!! Like, arghhh get me out!

So I go, “It’s so cold, I don’t know if I can shower”

“Mummy, you just need to say to yourself ‘I CAN do it, I CAN do it’ and then you will.”

Oh. Yes.

So I had a VERY cold shower 😂

How did a small person get so wise so quickly!?? What is that?! 😂

Wisdom.

Innocent wisdom.

Words have power.

Choose your words carefully. Not only for words you share with others.

Choose the words that come to your own head about YOU carefully.

It doesn’t actually mean you can do all things. Because it’s not ‘truth’. But you have a much greater possibility of success if you craft your words to support what you want than tearing you down.

Words have POWER!!

(For the record, freezing cold showers do make me feel exceptionally alive! 😉)