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One of the biggest problems that most people face as they work towards a goal is the ability to put in consistent effort. Staying consistent in your activities and effort is one of the keys to success.

Consistency is even more important than simple mathematics may make it seem. By this I mean that consistently putting in 5 hours each week over the course of a month towards building business, growing a blog, or achieving a goal, is more valuable than putting in 30 hours one week and nothing for the next three weeks. Yes, the 5 hour a week plan only puts in 20 hours for the month while the other plan has 30 hours, the 5 hour a week plan is still more effective. The same applies on a month-by-month basis. You need to be consistent month after month, not work for a month, and then take a month off. Being consistent will help you reach your goals much more quickly than a sprint-and-stop plan.

You can see this idea really clearly when you think of exercising. Having a big long work out once a month is not nearly as effective as having a smaller workout every day, or even every second day. Similarly, working out every day for a week and then taking the rest of the month off is not as effective as working three times each week across the entire month. Being consistent is more effective. This same principle applies to other goals you are pursuing.

Consistency like this is important for a few reasons:

1. Inertia

The hardest part of any accomplishment is getting started. If you work in spurts you are spending a lot of energy getting started. You will work hard to get started and then before you know it you are stopped again. The law of inertia says that “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.” If you then take a significant amount of time off from pursuing your goal, things will have stopped completely and you will need to use all of that energy again. If instead, you do a little bit every day, you will be able to carry over some of that energy. Think of the exercise program again. The first workout is the hardest, because you have negative inertia. Your body doesn’t react the same, and you mentally aren’t as in to it. After a while your daily workout becomes routine and you carry forward from one day to the next. If you only exercise once a week, it feels like you are starting over each time. Both mentally and physically it requires more effort to get started again.

2. Momentum

Moving past the initial steps of negative inertia allows you to build momentum. Momentum is when the activities you do start to snowball in their effects. The work you are doing starts to build up speed because everything you are doing is building on itself. The efforts of today are building smoothly on the efforts of tomorrow. Momentum is positive inertia. The positive side of inertia is that “a body in motion tends to stay in motion.” Momentum is clearly seen in many areas of life. In politics, momentum is a powerful force for a candidate in an election campaign. In sports, many games are filled with momentum swings where one team has all the energy and everything seems to go just right. In business, momentum helps companies grow more quickly than they have before. As you work consistently towards your goal you will develop momentum that makes things happen more quickly and with less effort than before.

3. Power of Mental Focus

In life people consistently move towards the things that they focus their minds on. If you work in spurts, your mind will be focused on your goal for a short period of time. After that time you forget about it, or at least it is not part of your focus. By consistently focusing on your goal, even just a little bit each day or week, will keep your mind engaged in the process. If you mind is engaged and focused on your goal, you will notice when other things come along that might help you achieve your goal. For example, if you are growing a part time home business, you may find potential clients while doing other things. If you are consistently working on your business, you will make those connections. If you are not, you might miss out on that opportunity. Being consistent keeps your goal in your mind and helps you move towards it more quickly.

4. Keeping your life in balance

You need to allow all the areas of your life, family, work, business, spiritual etc. have some level of balance. That means you need to spend an appropriate amount of each aspect of your life. If you pursue your goals with quick spurts where you put in a huge amount of time in for one week, then during that week everything else in your life will be out of balance. Of course the opposite is also true. If you take three weeks off from pursing your goal, you will be out of balance in that area. Take exercise as an example. If you go overboard one week, then you will have taken time away from other things you should be doing; you will be out of balance. If you then stop working out for the next three weeks, you are equally out of balance, this time short on the physical activity side of life.

Consistency in life is vital. In almost every situation in my life where I haven’t achieved my goal, or where I am unsatisfied with my progress towards a goal it is because I have been inconsistent in my efforts. Being consistent allows you to use inertia instead of working against it, it allows you to build momentum, use the power of mental focus, and keep your life in balance. The next post will discuss HOW to improve your consistency.

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
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You have heard it said many times that you need to have a balanced budget. The general understanding here is that you need to make sure spend less than you make. Unfortunately for many this gets complicated. People struggle to follow a budget. That is why I use a “Simple Budget Technique”.

Beyond having a balanced budget where incoming funds and outgoing funds are balanced, it is also important to balance where you spend your money; you should spend money on the things that are really important – both now and into the future. This involves creating an appropriate mix of how you spend your money and what you spend your money on. This is balanced spending. Here are four categories everyone should consider having a budget for:

1. Health

Increasingly, people are starting to pay attention to their health. There are a lot of ways to improve your health for free, but sometimes you should invest money in your health.

I’m not going to recommend a set amount to spend on your nutrition. But think about it – how much money do you spend on your car? I calculated out the other day that between insurance, oil changes, and basic maintenance (not even gas), I spend close to $4 a day on my car! How much then should I spend on my most valuable asset – my health?

Your health budget might include money for:

Better food – Good food costs money. Unless you have your own garden or live on a farm, it will cost you more to eat natural organic foods and to eat more fruits and vegetables. All of these can be valuable investments.

Fitness – While many people will choose to exercise for free, there are a number of things that you may want to spend money on. If you run or walk a lot you should invest in a pair of good running shoes. Some will want to invest in a gym membership, or purchase a quality piece of exercise equipment. Where I live in Canada, there are several months of the year where outdoor activities are limited due to the cold and snow. This is why my wife and I purchased an elliptical trainer. It gets lots of use, even in the summer. You might choose to get a membership at a golf club or tennis club. Choose something that you will enjoy and will keep you fit.

Vitamin/Minerals and Supplements – More and more today people are realizing that good nutrition is needed to live a life that is full and vibrant. It is almost impossible to get the nutrition you need from the food you eat. It is just no longer there. Soil quality has decreased substantially over the last century. Further, much of the food we eat is shipped long distances and loses its nutritional value over time. In fact even the American Medical Association now recommends that everyone take a multivitamin and mineral supplement. Beware in your shopping because most minerals have a difficult time absorbing in the body – in fact the average absorption of store brand products as been shown to be only 3-6%. You should be able to notice a difference after a couple of months taking the supplements.

2. Self-Improvement

If you are not growing and developing you are falling behind. We live in an information world and technology in almost all fields is expanding exponentially. In fact it is said that you need to double your knowledge every 7 years. Thankfully, there are more and more free sources of training and information such as blogs and podcasts. Beyond that there are some great ways to spend a little and invest in your self:

Books - Reading is a great way to gain knowledge and to keep motivated. I make it a practice to always be reading something motivating, inspiring and educational. If there is a subject you want to learn about, read a few books on it and you will far ahead of most people. And with reading you don’t have to stop learning about something. If you are passionate about a subject, just keep reading. Here are my top book choices to get you started.

Audio CDs - Many top speakers sell their material on CD or DVD. I also purchase blank CDs and burn my favorite podcasts on to them for listening in the car. One popular choice is to learn a language. Many programs combine audio recordings with online or computer-based learning to help you learn a new language more quickly.

Conferences - Make sure that at least once each year you attend a conference related to your personal growth. This might be a conference specific to your field, or a general personal development conference. I find it best to plan to attend a conference that is some distance from your home. Use it as a personal retreat weekend to refresh and connect with your goals.

Seminars or Classes - Look for other opportunities to learn. These might be seminars put on by the local Chamber of Commerce or you may take a class at a local college or university. These can be fantastic ways of learning a new skill or staying up on your industry.

Coaching - Everyone needs a coach. A coach is someone you can bounce ideas off of, share your goals with, and go to for advice. A good coach will keep you accountable to your goals, help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses and inspire you to achieve your best. I speak with a coach every two weeks, and I serve as a coach to many others.

3. Giving

Look to give money away. There is a clear connection that occurs between giving in receiving. The people that give money away tend to receive more back. I don’t think there is some magic reason for this happening, but I do think it works in our psychology. If you give away money, you naturally carry with you an abundance mentality. You are able to understand that more money will come and you will be alright even though you give it away. No matter whether you earn a lot of money, or very little, you should start giving now. A good place to start is by giving 10% of your income. For some, this may seem like a lot, and yet if you set it up as an automatic gift each month you will hardly notice it. And yet, it will be able to make a significant difference in the lives of others. Some ways to give are:

Support a meaningful cause - If there is a cause that is particularly meaningful for you, look to support that cause. For example, you may be passionate about cancer research. If so, look for ways to give to that cause.

Support your local church, synagogue, or worship community - If you attend a church or similar community you should be involved in supporting it. Not only does it support the ongoing functions of the church itself, but churches often provide an opportunity to pool funds and use them to accomplish things that individual donors would not have been able to do.

Support a microenterprise - I’ve previously written about how entrepreneurship can play an important role in poverty alleviation through microcredit. You can contribute as well. Kiva.org partners individual lenders with entrepreneurs in less developed countries. You loan a small amount to them, and it is repaid back over the next year. You are then able to take the same money and loan it to another person.

Sponsor a child - One very rewarding form of giving is to sponsor a child. There are many organizations that allow you to sponsor a child in a less developed country. Your funds go to help pay for food, clothing and education for that child. You are often able to send and receive letters from your sponsor child providing for a hands-on connection to your giving.

4. Investing for the Future

Investing is a vital step. Some people have been scared by the recent economic downturn and have retreated away from investing. You shouldn’t let fears about the economy stop you. Yes, you may want to learn a little bit about risk and stay away from over optimistic views of investments in areas such as real estate, but it is still important that you save for the future. There are several things you should be saving for:

Retirement/Long Run - Investing for your retirement and later life is vital. No matter how much or how little you are making now, invest 10% in your long-run plan. Be diligent and don’t cheat on this plan. Stick to it, and you will have a nice nest egg ready for your retirement. It is never too early or too late to start investing – you’re never too young or too old. With tax deductions given for starting retirement savings programs, saving for your future can even be more valuable. Make sure you’re making your money work for you. Investments can serve to leverage your money, allowing you to earn even while you sleep. Do it now!

Emergency Fund - We all know now that job stability is a thing of the past. Beyond that, life is full of surprises, and some of them are very costly! Having an emergency fund in place provides peace of mind, and stability when those surprises occur. Author and radio host Dave Ramsey suggests having an emergency fund that will cover 3 to 6 months of living expenses. This is a great guideline that everyone should follow.

Education Fund - If you have children, it is wise to put money away into an education fund, to help them pay for college education. Even if you are hoping your child will pay for their own education, having a small fund in place can make a big difference for them. Ideally, put some money away when your child is born and allow it to grow all the way until they are ready to go to college. If you missed that time, start now anyways!

Asset Replacement - you should also have money to replace your personal assets. You can use this to save for and buy a car with cash, be prepared when something breaks, or as part of a planned replacement strategy.
Having a balanced budget means more than keeping income higher than expenses. You need to have a balanced budget to ensure your spending habits match your long-term priorities. Invest money in your health, your personal development, your future, and in others through giving. Only when these spending choices match your values and goals will you have a real balanced budget.

Written by  -
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
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