Have you ever heard the phrase, “consistency is key”? If you’re like me, the concept of consistency may look a lot like the top row of glasses in the illustration below. If you are doing something consistently you may think you need to be doing it perfectly every time over a span of time. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Consistency is a measure of effort. How much effort we are able to give varies by forces that often exceed our control.
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “keep showing up”? That feels more attainable to me. It requires you to repeatedly demonstrate effort but looks more like the bottom row of glasses. Each glass has a little more or less depending on what you have to give. The most important thing is that each glass has a little something in it. Effort.
Perfection is possible but it’s not sustainable. Nobody can be perfect all the time. We all have our highs and lows; we’re human. Sometimes we have days when our effort fills the glass, other days we can only squeeze out a few drops but what matters is that every day we put some effort towards achieving our goals. That is consistency and it takes deliberate effort.
Filling the glass, even partway, on a consistent basis is hard. Things come up. Obstacles get in the way. You have to consciously choose to make your goals a priority. I worked with a colleague who wanted to prioritize personal outreach to donors. No matter how his day went, his last act was five thank you calls to donors. His goal was to strategically end his day on a positive note and make others feel valued. He mostly left voicemails but occasionally a person would pick up and he would have a nice conversation. Even if the donor only received the voicemail, they still reaped the benefits of my colleague’s effort. We talked about his consistent effort many times over the years. I know some days were easier for him than others. I remember one day was particularly terrible; nothing went the way it was supposed to. He wanted to go home but he stayed and made his five calls. Once he left that night his head was in a different place. His negativity was contained and he was able to compartmentalize his day. I think the five calls that night did more for him than they did for the donors he contacted.
Developing relationships takes deliberate effort. We all have lots of things we fill our days with, building relationships takes intentionality. Think about how you nurture friendships? How often do you check in, send a text, or invite a friend for coffee? Building professional relationships happens in the same way. They take the same amount of deliberate effort and authenticity.
I recently read an article where a professional contact of mine was cited. The person is someone I value in my professional network. I took a moment to drop them an email, let them know I noticed their contribution, and extended good wishes. It didn’t take a lot of effort on my part, just deliberate action. I was genuinely excited to see their name in the article, being able to make the connection felt good. It then spurred a dialogue that reminded the other person of our relationship and we made a plan to connect on another topic.
Deliberate acts done consistently are transformative. I was attending a Planned Giving Group of New England seminar and one of the topics discussed was how to identify planned giving prospects. The answer, look at who is giving small amounts constantly. It’s great advice. I’ve seen those donors become planned giving donors time and again. They care deeply about the organization and want to be supportive but don’t have the ability to make sizable contributions each year. Instead, they choose to make a more significant contribution upon their passing. They engage consistently in a deliberate act because it’s something they value.
You can tell a lot about a person by where they apply consistent effort. Most people don’t have the bandwidth to do many things consistently. Some people don’t apply consistency to anything. People like that make me wonder how important their goals truly are? Have they identified the right priorities? My advice, start with one thing. Set one priority and establish one small measurable action to demonstrate progress toward your ultimate goal. Do it consistently until it becomes part of your routine. Establish a period of time to look back and reflect on your effort. You’ll be much further along than if you had never started.
