Is the journey worth it?
Quick Answer: Yes. Consistency in business is what builds results: small actions repeated every day, like sharing your business with a few new people, accumulate slowly and show up over years. An overnight success is usually many years in the making, and the effort you put in becomes the foundation for your next goal.
Why You Keep Going
Why are you building for the future? Why are you learning something new? Why are you building a business? Why are you going for your dream? If you are reading this, chances are, you are going for it.
However, from time to time, you may have doubts.
As you know, life is not always easy. Business, when properly applied, makes life easy for people but the work of the business itself... is not.
Consistency in Business: Simple, Not Easy
Business is simple but it is not easy. Because much of the business happens so slowly and gradually, it is hard to see the changes day to day.
If you lost one more dollar every day, it may not make a difference right away, but over time, it will show. By the same token, if you made one more dollar every day, it may not show right away either but over time, the effect will show up as well.
Simple, definitely not easy.
What would happen to your business if you shared about your business with three new people every day? What would happen if you shared about your business for 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
What would happen if we did all those things that we put off every day? For a week? For a month? For a year?
Results Come From Accumulation
Much of what we have and what we will have is the result of accumulation. They are the results that come from the practices and habits that we have taken upon ourselves.
The capacity to produce results is based upon the foundation, structures and relationships that we have built over time.
What is success? What is failure? What is wealth?
To me, they are the creation of individuals and groups who have faithfully, or sometimes with tremendous struggle, taken the actions and continued the practices that have brought about those outcomes and results.
Many of us want results right away because we live in an "instant society" where we are promised results immediately. But what many of us do not realize is that "an overnight success" usually takes many years, and immediately producing "vast fortunes" may even take many generations.
I am sure you have dreams and goals, otherwise, you would not be reading this today.
Results and Outcomes Take Time
Results and outcomes happen because of the actions that we take every day, moment by moment.
Once you achieve those results and outcomes, you realize that there is always more to achieve. The game and the road never end. There will always be more places to go and heights to reach.
I like to think we go for the big goals because it stretches us and makes us into who we could really be.
Let us imagine that you have reached your next big goal. It may take months or years before you reach your goal. It may take a great deal of effort and many trials.
All the work you have done, all the effort you have put in will have been for something worthwhile.
The journey itself will be the reward. The true value from the journey will be in getting you to the point of going on to your next goal.
- Business is simple but not easy, and most of it changes too slowly to see day to day.
- Small daily actions, good or bad, accumulate and show up over time.
- Your capacity to produce results rests on the foundation, structures and relationships you build.
- An "overnight success" is usually many years in the making.
- Big goals stretch you into who you could be; the journey is the reward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does consistency in business matter so much?
Because results are the product of accumulation. One more dollar lost or made every day barely shows at first, but over time the effect is unmistakable.
Why don't I see results from my efforts yet?
Much of business happens slowly and gradually, so the changes are hard to see day to day. The practices and habits you keep are building the foundation that later results come from.
Is overnight success real?
Rarely. What looks like an overnight success is usually many years of actions and practices that finally show.
What makes the journey worth it?
The effort stretches you into who you could really be, and it gets you to the point of going on to your next goal. The journey itself is the reward.