Have you ever heard the phrase, “Anything worth having is something you gotta work for”? I can hear that phrase repeating itself at various points in my life, particularly when the road got its roughest. I think this mantra is designed to motivate the repeater that better days are coming as long as they keep working at it [the goal] and remain consistent.

I think the difficulty with consistency is that you have to keep doing something even when you don’t see the results. The idea is that the end of the process, the individual would have achieved whatever they were working towards but what do you do when you are on the journey? When you haven’t quite reached that “final destination”. The journey is the consistency.

The journey is continuing to write when on average, only a handful of people are going to read it. The journey is practicing even when you aren’t a starter on the team. The journey is continuing to work a 9 – 5 job while you finance your dreams in the hope of something better. Continuing to work towards those goals consistently is the journey and that is the road you must travel to reach your goal or whatever that thing is that you’ve been working towards.

Don’t skip the journey. Don’t rush through it because you think the prize is at the end. The prize is the journey. The things you learned along the way, the lessons, the letdowns, the people you’ll meet, the celebrations are all part of the journey and part of what you will experience as you work hard. Think about it. Once you’ve reached the goal, essentially, you’re done right? You get to kick back and enjoy what you worked so hard for. You get to relax. Enjoy all the excitement that comes along the way. All those things are meant to prepare you for whatever comes next and you can master it all with consistency.

Consistency can be the grunt work, but it is necessary work to get you to the next level. Each notch you get closer towards your goal is due to you committing to your own success. Each notch is you choosing to put your personal happiness first because you are working towards something that you want and isn’t that a wonderful feeling to have? There are so many ways that life can rob you of happiness so you have to be committed to creating your happiness everyday. Be bold, be yourself, be happy, be consistent.