Persistence vs. Consistency for Personal Success

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge – 30th president of the United State.

Persistence Defined:

Dictionary.com gives one definition of Persistence as “the continuance of an effect after its cause is removed.”

Most people are not persistent and this definition explains why.

Think about this…you’re 10 pounds overweight (the ‘cause’) and you decide to take up a fitness program (the ‘effect’).  In a few months you succeed in losing the weight….you feel good about this and you stop your program.

Then in 6 months your back to being 12 pounds overweight and you do the same thing again and again and again.

Why?

Lack of persistence!

Once the ‘cause’ was eliminated (the excessive pounds) the ‘effect’ stopped (the working out)

If there you had persistence, your exercise program would have continued past the point of losing the weight.

Now let’s look at consistency

Again, dictionary.com defines consistency as “steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.”

Taking the above exercising example, you were consistent in getting to the gym, but once you lost the weight you were not persistent with the exercise program.

Do you see the big difference in the two? You can, at some level, have consistency but not have persistence.  But you can’t have persistence without consistency.

Let’s look at achieving a goal of making $100,000 a year by starting your own business.

You set-up a business plan, a marketing strategy and you start to let the word know about your product or service.  You market on a very regular consistent basis and within a year you hit your goal!  You’re making $100,000/year!

Then what happens?

Most people will pull back on the marking thinking that momentum will take it from here.  This may be true, but only for awhile.  Without persistence (continuing the marketing plan after you’ve hit your goal) you’re revenue will drop off.

Just as fear is a prerequisite for courage, mental strength is a prerequisite for perseverance. It takes mental strength to continue PAST to point of success.  Simply measuring how long someone sticks with a task until they reach their personal success doesn’t capture the true essence of perseverance.

Persistence and Personal Success

The formula of 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration applies to consistency and it great up to the point of reaching your personal success goal.   But this formula needs to be modified to add variable of persistence. I would say that constancy X persistence = personal fulfillment.  And personal fulfillment is the achievement of a goal and moving beyond that goal to something great.

This can only be done by combining constancy and persistence.

Since consistency is a prerequisite for persistence lets look at some aspects of consistency.

Consistency and Mental Strength

In general people with a higher level of mental strength will be consistent in tackling a difficult task to the point of success. This seems intuitive. If you believe you are a capable person with a good chance of succeeding at most things, you are less likely to quit.

What seems less intuitive is the following finding: People tend to be consistent longer at solving problems when they are told that what they are doing is difficult as opposed to easy.

Why?

Failing at a task that everyone else finds easy can be humiliating and damaging to mental strength and personal empowerment. In contrast, there is minimal shame when one fails a widely acknowledged difficult task (Starnes & Zinser, 1983; Frankel & Snyder, 1978)

A destructive compromise is self-handicapping.  This is a detrimental byproduct for failing to be consistent. Most often the term is used in the context of a failure to be consistent at practice or in preparation for a major task or event.  Golf is a great example of this.

Developing Persistence

The following exercises for building mental strength capability of consistency were adapted from a list provided by psychologist Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia:

• Finish a project ahead of time.
• Notice your thoughts about stopping a task, and make a conscious effort to dismiss them. Focus on the task at hand.
• Begin using a time management aid of some sort (a palm pilot, a daily planner, etc.). Find a system that works and actually use it.
• Set a goal and create a plan for sticking to it.
• When you wake up in the morning, make a list of things that you want to get done that day that could be put off until the next day. Make sure to get them done that day.

So now that we’ve briefly gone over consistency how would I describe persistence?

Very easy….”Start Strong and Finish Stronger ™”!

Now it’s your turn….let me know your thoughts in consistency and persistence in the comments below.