Operations: The Power of Consistency

How you do one thing, is how you do everything.

On a daily basis, you encourage your clients and newest members to stay consistent in order to reach their health and fitness goals. The hardest part of getting into shape and staying in shape, after all, is taking that first step into the gym, even after a long day of work or at the crack of dawn after another sleepless night.

But do you practice what you preach when it comes to consistency? Take a look at your daily schedule. Is your wellness routine a priority for you? We all know it can be hard to come in early or stay late at the club when you spend long hours there daily, but doing so can positively impact the view your clients have of you as well as the pride you feel toward yourself. What about your eating habits? Do you take the time to prepare meals and snacks to bring with you to work to eliminate grab-and-go food runs or hungry, unhappy afternoons?

Now think about a day that you felt successful. You probably had a to-do list prepared ahead of time and got started on it early in the morning, eliminating tasks until you had completed all or most of them. You probably ate healthy food, got a workout in, and perhaps you were even able to have dinner with your family or friends. What do healthy food, working out, and having dinner with loved ones have in common? All it takes to accomplish them is a little preparation.

More specifically, to make every day feel like that successful day, you need to prepare by removing all the barriers to success that you can control, like disorganization, procrastination and interruptions. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Identify the things that you do at work daily, weekly and monthly. How long does each task take? Schedule slots of time for each one on your calendar and make them recurrent.
• Now schedule slots of time for the things you want to do, like working out or meal prepping, and make those recurrent as well.
• Clean and organize your workspace to eliminate distractions.
• Make it clear to those around you that the time you’ve scheduled is busy time and is non-negotiable.

Once you’ve given yourself some structure, the next step is to be consistent about sticking to the schedule you set for yourself. Inevitably there will be a few things that happen each day that can’t be anticipated, but those should be the exception, not the rule. Plus, when most of your day is planned ahead of time, one interruption won’t rattle you.

Like we discovered, it’s the little things that make a day successful: the workout, the food, the knocking out tasks, big and small. Why not plan ahead and allow yourself to feel those successes every day? That simple feeling of accomplishment, experienced on a daily basis, could turn into an air of confidence that helps you reach more and greater goals.

Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2O.