Consistency vs Intensity
Whilst listening to ‘Happy Sexy Millionaire’ by Steven Bartlett, he referenced a topic shared by Simon Sinek.
The topic was Consistency vs Intensity, and I want to share some of my personal reflections on this.
Overall, it is widely accepted that consistency is better for us.
Consistency, whether in business or in our personal health and life, allows us to build strong foundations, improve day by day and take some of the positives that compound interest can bring.
Work out 4 days a week consistently for 10 years, and you’ll overall be in a healthier and better place than someone who trains one year on, one year off for 10 years.
In business, posting content every 2 days for a year is typically going to be recommended over posting 3x a day for a few weeks in a row and then not at all moving forward.
We then flip the script towards intensity.
Intensity is definitely required at certain stages of our lives too.
Often, you’ll need to do short sprints within your business, maybe when releasing a new product, or onboarding multiple new clients.
It is going to require late nights, early mornings and those extra shots of caffeine.
And by doing these short sprints, it can allow you to see leaps and bounds improvements in short periods of time.
However, the sustainability of this is low, and can cause major downturns if the intensity is too high for too long.
With all this in mind, I wanted to share with you a few questions to challenge you, and show you where you may need to improve in your business and life.
So let’s kick start this.
These are yes or no questions.
Life.
Am I happy with my intimate relationships?
Am I happy with my family & friend relationships?
Am I happy with my personal life / work balance?
Am I happy with my health?
Am I happy with how much adventure and fun I have?
Business.
Am I happy with how many sales I am currently making?
Am I happy with the level of service my clients receive?
Am I happy with the marketing I am doing for my business?
Am I happy with the level of wealth I am accumulating?
Am I happy with the coaching and support team I have?
Now, looking back, create a list for all of those questions you answered no too.
Example :
Life - Life / Work Balance, Adventure & Fun.
Business - Marketing, support team.
With the list of no’s that you have, now it is time to delve further into the details of these and establish whether they require more consistency, or whether they require a period of intensity to see them improve.
Example :
Your life / work balance is completely out of alignment. Is this simply a short season you are going through in your business, or has this been ongoing for months / years?
What is going to help you solve this issue.
Is it consistency in your time off, and scheduling this in advance? So consistency in the answer.
Is it simply a transition you are going through, and you need to apply an increased amount of intensity to get you through? So intensity is the answer.
Once you establish awareness of your current starting spot, you can decide whether consistency or intensity is the answer.
Another Example :
Your business marketing is falling short.
Have you recently fallen off the tracks, and just need a burst of intensity to get back to your homeostasis?
Or, has your marketing for your business been poor for a long period of time because you are on and off with it, and potentially you need to add consistency to your content output?
Either way, we are trying to dissect each part of your life and your business, and then make the decision of whether intensity or consistency will help turn this into a positive for you.
I hope this has helped you today and given you food for thought.
Speak soon.
Samuel Main