Dear Consistency: I’ve decided to stop breaking up with you.
I QUIT! If you are an entrepreneur, you have probably uttered those words in your heart, through your actions, or aloud at some point in your journey of owning a business. There are a litany of reasons to teeter on the brink of throwing in the towel as a business owner. Entrepreneurial life is not for the faint of heart. Billionaire Sara Blakely sold fax machines door-to-door before inventing Spanx. Confidence Factor for Women Founder, Carol Sankar wrote over 900 articles before top-tier media outlets and global organizations began validating her voice as a premier industry expert. According to Inc., any business that doesn’t maintain a dedication to consistency will fail.
As entrepreneurs, we write business plans, memoranda of understanding, contracts, and intentions. Yet, all of those documents are moot without a relentless commitment to forward movement in the direction of our dreams. If consistency is such a powerful driving force, and the pressure to quit so commonplace, what would it look like if every entrepreneur paused to pen a vow renewal letter to consistency? I decided to explore this social experiment by crafting my own letter of commitment. I hope my words inspire your own.
Dear Consistency,
I’ve decided to stop breaking up with you.
How can a four-syllable tenet be so easy to say, but difficult to remain faithful to.
There are areas of my life and leadership where the strength of our bond is unquestioned and the impact of our union undeniable. Together, we make magic!
Yet there are other areas of my life where I find myself dipping out on you. I’ve flirted with with doubt, had one-night stands with ‘do-it-tomorrow’, and even cheated on you in a sordid affair with your arch nemesis, complacency.
I know you don’t understand why I keep you second-guessing us. I know you wonder why I struggle to commit.
Maybe it is because being with you requires work. Saying ‘I do’ to you requires a level of investment that makes me deal with the unresolved issues of past relationships with poor time management, insecurity, and overextension. You always told me they were never my real friends.
When I ride with you for the long haul, I always see results. I hate to tell you, but the proverbial truth is true. Whenever we have broken up, it has never been you… it has always been me.
I know I need you in my life. Like any good partner, you make me better. When I’m dedicated to you, it is easy to identify and delete the distractions. What we build together is unbelievably good. I like the gains that emerge in my life when I’m exclusive to you.
You’ve heard it before, but this time is real. Consistency, I’m done breaking up with you.
