This Month's Efforts Are Next Month's Results: The Key To Consistency In Entrepreneurship

Updated: Feb 14

"Consistency is key."

Heard it before?

This is one of the main ideals in business, entrepreneurship, and really with any kind of goal-setting endeavor. It's important to make big pushes towards where you want to go, and I would argue it's even more important to put a moderate amount of effort and energy into your plan consistently over time to help you get where you want to go. Reason being, for most of us, growing a business is a long term thing. We want to see continual growth over time, and if you always come out of the gate too hot, you're going to leave one job because of burnout and create another situation where you cause yourself burnout again.

So consistency is great and all, but how do you actually do it?

I know I'm most successful whenever I have specific instructions to follow, so I wanted to share what I've been doing specifically over the last few months to give you a game plan if you want to start putting some more consistent structure into your everyday.

Find a synopsis below, and for more details, check out this video!

This month's efforts are next month's results.

I first came across this phrase on a TiKTok a few months ago. I wish I could find it, and I will make sure to link it if I do. It showed a woman working out and consistently going to the gym to help her reach her fitness goals.

This really landed with me because I know from my own experience, whether it's fitness, nutrition, or PT, I want results fast. I want to see that my hard work is paying off. So I will embark on a plan to get it done, and am often disappointed that two weeks of doing the thing didn't lead to what I wanted.

However, that disappointment is only because of where I set my expectations. I don't often give myself enough time to achieve the objective and will think that I can get it done a lot faster than is realistic.

It's the same thing with business. Whatever result I want, I know if I set realistic time expectations, I'm going to be a lot happier with my progress over time and knowing that it's going to take some time of sticking with my plan before I see the results keeps me motivated to stay on track.

Right now, I run a business where I offer business and marketing coaching & physical therapy services. I manage multiple online communities, sell courses, and do marketing for other practices. It's a lot going on all at once. Plus of course, taking care of myself, the house, Goni my dog, maintaining family and friend relationships, etc. Just like you. And for a long time, I was just reacting to everything.

So I decided to start doing something pretty simple -- I started writing down the exact step-by-step processes I needed to function and what needed to get done on a regular basis. Then, I schedule it on a weekly basis. That's pretty much all there is too it! This plan has allowed me to be more consistent than I think I ever have been, and therefore, a lot less stressed out.

How To Conquer Decision Fatigue aka Plan For Consistency

For me, conquering decision fatigue, creating systems, and staying consistent are all wrapped up in one. One time, one of my friends shared one of his favorite quotes with me, which was, "The road to wealth and success is boring." That couldn't be more true.

The Brain Dump

The first thing I did was a brain dump of all aspects of my life:

Family
Friends
Goni
Working out
Nutrition
Business coaching
Physical therapy
Digital courses
etc

And with each, I wrote out any outstanding tasks that needed to be accomplished as well as routines I do or want to do for each. I wrote out the process for each routine and it goes in my weekly schedule.

Weekly Schedule

Each week on Sunday, I do a weekly planning routine where I go over everything from the past week, look at the upcoming two weeks, and figure out what needs to get done. I also schedule my workouts so I know what I'm planning to do each day. This really helps me with decision fatigue -- whenever I don't have to program my workouts or decide on them day of, I am way more likely to stick with doing them.

I take a look at my task list & start scheduling tasks according to my daily themes -- admin, content, client work, or other. Check out the video above for more information here!

Then, I decide on what I'm going to do for content that week and schedule it so it's ready to create on Monday.

My Morning Routine

Morning routines are a funny thing. Lots of people are very in favor of them and lots of people aren't. I think where the trouble comes in is that they can be very all or nothing in their setup, and that's not always realistic.

Morning routines can come and go, and they can also change. They also don't need to be complex. For me, I decided to do a trial run of different activities for a few weeks, then pick my favorites. I also only commit to doing the morning routine on work days, to give myself a little bit of breathing room.

I currently make coffee, read for 20 minutes, journal for 5-10 minutes, and do a daily preview in my planner to get myself ready. If I have time, I will work on coding practice. Then I go for my workout.

What this has really allowed me to do is spend the first hour of my day with myself. I think it's common for us to wake up and immediately start doing things for other people, so if we are able to start the day doing something for ourselves, I feel like it let's us start living for ourselves so that we can also be there for the people we care about.

This process is nothing fancy, but it's gotten me this far and it's definitely helped me slow my thinking down. I'm not typically too anxious anymore and I've gotten good feedback on the way I'm showing up each week. And I can breathe easier.