What Are You Doing Consistently…..Well
29 years ago on September 6th, 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. broke the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games played. On that day he passed Lou Gehrig’s previous record of 2,130 straight games. Ripken’s streak would continue for three more years ultimately ending at 2,632 games. To put that in perspective that streak continued over 16 seasons and is more than double the games of the person that holds the third longest streak. And the longest current active streak in major league baseball is only at 600 games. While some people might say that was his job, think about all he had to do to prepare his body for the rigor of each season and the will he had to compete while sick, exhausted, or needing a personal day when it would have been perfectly acceptable to take a night off.
I continue to be acutely aware of habits. The things we do in our lives that shape who we are, reflect where we’ve been, and indicate what we are becoming. They are things we do each month, week, or day that serve us in both positive and negative ways. The thing about habits though is consistency. It’s easy to start something new that can improve your life, it’s much harder to sustain that new behavior over an extended period of time. Whether exercise, personal development, less screen time, or healthier eating behaviors, we have all probably experienced a time when we committed to a change, started strong, but couldn’t consistently make it a permanent part of our lives.
Consistency is critical for leaders. It is paramount to building trust because it creates stability and a culture of confidence. When we align what we say with what we do, the people around us get to know who we are and what they can expect from us. They learn that they can count on us to show up and be there for them. And they also gain a clearer understanding on what we expect from them.
In order for us as leaders to maintain consistency, we have to show up authentically. It’s really hard to be consistent when we are trying to be someone else or mimic behaviors that aren’t aligned with who we are. This means that we must be clear on our values and why certain behaviors are important. And from there we must take responsibility for our actions and have the discipline to make positive choices day in and day out.
For Ripken, it wasn’t about the streak, it was about putting himself in a position to do what he loved and be there for his teammates. When asked about the streak he once said; “I never really thought about the streak.” “I never really allowed myself to think about the streak. It was very simple, I wanted to come to the ballpark, I wanted to play, I wanted to help the team win.”
Consistency does not require talent, yet the commitment to be consistent separates average leaders from great ones. This week I hope you will take stock of what consistency means to you. I know I have a number of things that I believe I do consistently well and there are other things I still need to work on. What behaviors are are serving you well and which ones need to be evaluated?
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