Consistency as an Entrepreneur

Hi, I'm Dr. Natalie Betutiri, and today we are going to be talking about consistency. Consistency is super important. There's so much power and consistency, and I feel like it's an area that doesn't get talked about much or is not thought of as, like, a priority yet. This is something that can completely change your life, whether it's your personal life or your professional life, whether you're an entrepreneur or a student or you work in a family business or you have a career. Consistency is so key. Let me tell you, every big mountain is climbed with many small steps, and that is so true in everything you do in life. So it's about managing what you can do every day to make sure you do it over a long period of time. When you talk to fitness experts, they tell you you'd rather do like, 20 minutes of exercise a day than four hours once a week. It's better for your body, right? And that is the same in any other area of your life. You want to do the same thing, small, small, small, small, regularly, regularly, regularly. And that is what compounds over time. And one day you look back and you've gone so far. When we try to overexert ourselves or take these big steps or leaps, one, it's risky. Two, it's very hard to actually pull off and achieve. And three, it's not sustainable. You can't keep doing it. So you give up. Along the way, you get demoralized, you hurt yourself or you lose focus or you lose money because you're taking these big risks, trying to make big steps. If you took smaller steps, you would go much further because you're able to maintain that for a longer period of time. Whenever you look at successful people, go backwards, look at them today, and then you go and research them, Google them, or ask them the question and see when they started doing what they're doing. I will bet you it is more than 10 years that they were doing the exact same thing before they actually became successful and, like, famous. And you even heard of them because it takes a lot of time. There's a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers, where he talks about the 10,000 hour rule. And I think that's the first time it came out in, like, the mainstream. How, how so many athletes, CEOs, people who are very successful, what they do, have spent 10,000 hours doing that one skill to become an Expert, it takes 10,000 hours, and that typically takes about 10 years. When you look at athletes or musicians, CEOs, anyone famous, basically, they've been Doing that since they were young, they've been putting in the work, the practice, the time. It's not just about having a university degree. All of us have had 10,000 hours or something. Some people been watching TV, some people it's in listening to music, some people it's just in chatting. But what you want Is to have 10,000 specialized hours, focused hours. I am not a technical person. I don't have 10,000 hours in engineering or construction or something specific. So I have to put my effort to make sure I'm doing the same thing over time, whether it's in different sectors, but my skill set is improving in that one area. That's how I become an expert at one thing. So you have to start to look at your life. What are your goals, what are your dreams, how are you going to get there, what skills you need to get there and how can you make sure you're putting in those hours so to become an expert. I recently watched some of Kanye West's documentary. Yes, he's a very controversial figure, but when you look back at what he's achieved, it's amazing. And if you see in the documentary how young he was and how determined he was and how he kept going even when no one took him seriously, they weren't giving him a chance to be a rapper, he was a producer. He kept going, whether he was in hospital, in a hotel, boring other musician studio time. When no one believed in him, when he didn't have the money, he made sure he was putting in the time and the effort every day, not waiting. One day I'll get my big break. Let me just sit at home or do a different job. That has nothing to do with my dream. And then one day something will happen. It won't, because you need to put in those hours. You need to be consistent in what you're doing. And that's how opportunity will find. They say that there's no such thing as good luck or some people are super lucky. There's so many, like perspectives on luck. I really believe that you can make your own luck. Because what I've seen is you are lucky when the right thing happens to you at the right time. But the only way that happens is if you were in the right place at the right time. And how will you be in that right place if you're always there? If your dream is to be a musician, but you never spend any time around other musicians, how are you going to become a musician? No one knows you. You don't understand the industry. You have nothing to show for it. You want to get into business. You can't say, I have this idea, I'm going to start this business once I get this much capital. And you've never done anything towards that business. You need to be working in that field, you need to be doing research, you need to be attending conferences, you need to be networking with those people. You need to be working on your business so that when you meet the right person, you're actually ready for the opportunity that they can give you. You can say, I started this business a year ago. This is what I've been doing. I only have this much so far, but is working and now I need help and support, then they will help you. But if you're not in the right place, you're not putting in the effort, you're never going to have any kind of change. So you have to make your own luck, you have to make your own opportunities, open those doors for yourself. You have to go up to the right people and be around them, be in the right spaces where you're learning, you're absorbing. Every industry is always growing and changing and they will leave you behind. If you're waiting or if you think you want to make a big step, if you're making small steps every day, you go so much further with so much less effort. Honestly, there's some things that I feel like I've been doing many for many years, that now I don't even have to think about them. Sometimes when people ask me, so what is what has made a big difference in your life? I'm like, what is the most? But it's because I've made them into such small habitual changes that it's just part of my regular life every day, when it comes to business and work, every single day, no matter how tired I am, no matter what's going on, even if I'm stressed, even if I don't feel like it, the first thing I think of in the morning is what do I need to achieve today? What are the tasks that I have to do today? Even on Sundays, even on public holidays, even on Christmas morning. That's just how my brain is now. Because the first thing I need to think about in the morning is what do I need to achieve? What is my intention for the day? What are the things on my plate? And. And at the end of the day, before I fall asleep, that's always what I'm thinking about. What went well today? What didn't go well? What was I supposed to do? Did I get this done? Even if it's one task per day, make sure you do that task, even if it's not related to business. I need to make sure that I do this for my health, or I do this for my family, or I do this for my friend. That's how my mind is now trained, and that's how I become more productive. Because every single day I'm doing something. Little things every day add up in the long haul. So after three, four, five years, when someone asks me, how do you get so many things done? It's because I do many small things per day. Even if it's not one huge task, at least I've made some progress in that task. I did a little bit of it. I read this report, I wrote this email, I sent this, I got this instruction, I did this research, eat small things every day. And that's what adds up over time. So what you want to do is try and break down the big things into small, small steps. So have the vision and have the direction you're going in. You don't have to have the exact specific dream. Some people know exactly where they want to be in 10 years. I want to have this kind of job and this kind of house and this kind of life and this everything. Most people, you just know, like the general direction. The clearer you are, it is more helpful. But the general direction is what's important, because we can't control every small thing, but we can make sure we're moving in the right direction. So you. So if you know the general direction now, break it down into teeny, tiny, tiny, tiny tasks. Even if it's something that will take you 15 minutes in the day, even if it's just a phone call or it's five minutes, or I'll pass by that show and see that showroom, or I'll read this flyer, or I'll research this thing, I'll watch that YouTube video, make those small steps, because that's the progress you need. So break it down into something really small and then be consistent. If you're going to say, I'm going to listen to this podcast and there's 12 episodes in this series, and they're all teaching about this sector that I want to work in. So every day I'm going to listen to 10 minutes of it when I first wake up in the morning or when I'm on my way to work or when I'm waiting for something. And every day you listen to 10 minutes. 10 minutes. 10 minutes, 10 minutes. Within a few weeks, you have done all 12 and you have empowered yourself with that knowledge. So you want to break things down into really tiny tasks and then make sure you're making progress. It's hard to go from zero to every day. So try with once a week, twice a week, then three times, then five times till you build the habit. And you'll know when you build the habit is when you don't have to remind yourself or put in so much effort to get the thing done. So make sure that these small tasks are inserted into your day. Whether you need to put alarms in your phone or remind your colleague or your spouse or someone to tell you, remind me, ask me next week, have I read this book or have I done this thing I'm going to do? Make sure you have accountability, even if you need to post it on your social media and say, friends, I'm going to be doing this over the next few months. Support and encourage me. That's what friends and family are for, right? So make sure you're making those small steps because consistency is so powerful. I promise you, you would rather do something small every day and do that for six months than think you're going to wake up one day and spend a whole week dedicated to this one project and get everything done. You want it to be sustainable. You want to make sure that you are moving in the right direction. That's how you create luck, you create opportunities. You will learn more and you will grow. You will grow and you move so much further than if you are trying to just make big jumps every now and then. So break these things down and see how to implement it into your life. Whatever your dreams and vision are, you need to be active on them. You need to get out of your head and your idea and start acting. Start making these small actions every day, achieving these small tasks, and be proud of yourself. Encourage yourself. You build momentum. You'll be happy that you're achieving these things and you're doing it. It feels little, but you know what? You'd rather do that little every day than wait and next month again, you're like, I didn't start doing what I said I was going to do. Just start small and just keep going. You have to keep going. Most people give up at some point and that's why they don't achieve what they're trying to achieve. People who get stuff done know how to keep going. That's the skill that they have that other people don't have. It's not that they're smarter or tougher or stronger or have more blessings or energy or better opportunities. They know how to keep going because it's those small tasks that they keep doing that keeps them moving ahead. If someone is going really slowly, but they don't stop, they go much further than the person who goes quickly and stops. Goes quickly and stops. Goes quickly and stops. That slow person will get there eventually. The first one, you never know how they're going to reach. So make sure that you are thinking about the power of consistency, and you're implementing it in your own life, in all the different areas of your life, whether it's work, it's your personal, it's your family, it's mental, it's emotional, it's physical, it's spiritual. See where you need to be moving forward and how you can break that down into small tasks and act on them. You can do it.