Consistency-The Ongoing Struggle

I'm not entirely sure what it is. It plagues me on a daily basis and quite frankly, it's what has held me back in many areas of my life. In business. In family life. In my running life. Life in general. It is my Ongoing Struggle.

My complete and bewildering lack of 'consistency'.

What keeps me from having it? Is it DNA? Can I use the go to for everyone, ADHD? I like that one. When I say I have ADHD, it actually feels like it relieves me of any culpability.

Or, is it what I actually fear it is, a simple lack of continuous conscious focus? A failure to have a set system of the right repeatable steps.

I'm not quite sure if the word 'ironic' is correct or if I'm just being Alanis when I use the word but whatever...I digress, I think it's ironic that I train people to be highly effective B2B Salespeople and I harp on The Right Repeatable Steps yet I can't seem to latch onto this in my own life. I find it simply astonishing that when I was in sales, I managed to become the #1 Salesman in the country for three straight years with the highest recorded closing percentage ever but I was, and unfortunately still am, the most inconsistent guy in the office.

I despise doing the same thing over and over and over again. I hate systems. I loathe calendars. Charts make me mental. Recording stuff? Are you kidding me? I never take notes. Ok, that's not entirely true. I take notes but I NEVER refer to them again. I have note pads full of 'words' that have never seen the light of day again once the page turned.

I'm the guy that will go 1000% at something until I reach that point of slight boredom or if something else catches my eye or interest. Like this blog. I actually started off really enjoying recording my training but then I hit some point in time to which something else got in the way. So, I stopped. It's been just about 15 months since I last wrote anything. I know, right?!?!?! You have been waiting with bated breath for a new post. ;)

"So Dan, then why the key strikes now?" Well, I need consistency in my life. My training is terrible and I've gained too much weight. I need consistency with my running and eating and I need to find a way to find consistency. If that makes any sense whatsoever.

If I Google the word Consistency, there are 29,600,000 results (in .18 seconds, which when you think about it is quite impressive there Google. Almost 30 million hits in less than a quarter of a second. Again, I digress)

Point being, EVERYONE has a way or idea or plan to become consistent but I don't have time to read 29M articles to find this thing. But I am fairly intelligent enough to know what works for me and what doesn't and for me, I have to keep it exciting. Boredom, not good when it comes to me and my insanity. I need and thrive on excitement. Hence the whole ultra-running deal. So, in order to keep myself consistent with my training and eating, I'm going to write about it and hopefully, make it exciting for both me and the 1.2 people who might read this.

I plan on writing to you 1.2 people at least once a week. I'll let you know what I've done and what I've not done. Miles and hours in the mountains and what I've plopped down the gullet. Hopefully, there will be more good than bad to report. One of my New Year's Lies, oh, Resolutions was to run at least 1200 miles this year. That might not seem like a lot when you consider ultra-runners can easily chart 100 miles in a week (or day) but for me, it'll simply come down to consistency. If I'm consistent with my running and training, I should blow past that around July-Aug. If I'm not, it'll be a battle until Dec. 31st. But either way, I'll chart that for you as well.

Where am I so far? Well, with an upper respiratory infection that completely sidelined me this past week, my annual total as of today is 27 miles but I plan on adding another 20-25 to that tomorrow which will help me get back on pace. Hopefully. At the end of the day, I enjoy running and I definitely enjoy eating so I simply have to make it a focus to find the time to both do it and to do it right. Easy.

So, I'll give this disastrous attempt at a readable blog yet another go and hopefully, I can do now what I've been unable to do for 42 years. Be consistent.

Happy Running.