Analogy of a hand-pumped water well

Hi everyone,

I would like to share this information with you all which I find hugely valuable.

This written by Darren Hardy the pubilsher of Success Magazine and motivational speaker.

Lack of consistency is the subtle stealer of dreams. The stop and start process kills progress in any pursuit. In fact, inconsistency is one of the biggest reasons people don’t achieve their goals, and instead end up living a life of frustration and disappointment.

When you start thinking about slacking off on your action plan, routines and rhythms, consider the massive cost of inconsistency. It is not the loss of the single action and the tiny results it creates; it is the utter collapse and loss of momentum your entire progress will suffer.

Zig Ziglar uses the analogy of a hand-pumped water well. The water table is 25 feet below the ground. A pipe runs down to the water table, and you have to pump the lever to create the suction that brings the water above the ground and out of the spout.

When most people start a new endeavor, they grab the lever and start pumping really hard, they are excited, committed and resolute…. They pump and pump and pump, and after a few minutes (or a few weeks), when they don’t see any water (results), they give up pumping the lever altogether.

The first few people they showed the product to didn’t buy. After two weeks on their new health plan, they haven’t lost one pound. They didn’t meet anyone at the first two networking events they attended.

People expect instant results, and when they don’t see progress, they quit… before success has a chance to show itself. Wise people continue to pump.

If they persevere and continue to pump and pump the lever, eventually a few drops of water will appear. At this point, a lot of people say, “You’ve got to be kidding! All this pumping, and for what? A few drops of water? Forget it!”

Eight weeks of working out at the gym, and they don’t look like a Victoria’s Secret or Calvin Klein underwear model. They didn’t make $10,000 their first 90 days in their new business. Again, they don’t see the results they were expecting. They think their plan isn’t working, and they quit. But the wise person persists.

If you continue to pump, eventually, you will get a full and steady stream of water. Congratulations, success!

But here’s the real secret…

Once the water is flowing, you no longer need to pump the lever as hard or as quickly. It’s easy to keep the pressure steady by just pumping the lever CONSISTENTLY.

Now, what happens if you let go of the lever for too long? The water falls back down into the ground, and you’re back to square one. If you come back and pump the lever easily and steadily, you still won’t get any water. You have lost the vacuum, or the momentum of your compounded effort. The only way to get the water flowing again is to pump the lever really hard all over again.

The problem with most people’s lives is that they work really hard to get the water flowing and then take a break. Wham-o! They have to pump like crazy again just to get back to even. Living life in a constant state of fits and starts is frustrating and demoralizing.

People start up a routine of making 10 new prospecting calls a day, strike a little gold, and then don’t dial for a couple of weeks. People get excited about their new “date night” routine with their spouse, but in a few weeks, it’s back to Netflix and microwave popcorn on the couch Friday nights. I see people buy a new book, sign up for a new program or seminar and go like crazy for a couple of weeks or months. Then they stop and end up right back where they started—sound familiar?

Consistency is one of the most important principles of success.

Here are a few ways lack of consistency can negatively impact your life… If you miss a couple weeks of workouts, or affectionate gestures to your wife, or slack off on your prospecting routine, you don’t just lose the results those two weeks could have produced. If that is all you lost, not much damage would be done. What people don’t realize is that by breaking their rhythm, they kill Mo (Momentum)—and that is the real tragedy. The cost to revive momentum is an enormous amount of time, energy and effort—not to advance, but to get back to where you started.

Committing to the principle of applying consistent effort to your goals will forever alter how you (could) live your life. One moment of inconsistency, a single poor choice, temporary inaction, a brief lapse of discipline doesn’t simply result in the loss of that one action—it breaks your momentum. Your Mo has left the building.

It’s not how you or your competition start; it’s how you continue. If you stay consistent, even slowly (the tortoise), ultimately, you will beat the most talented of competitors (the hare). CONSISTENCY is why the tortoise beats the hare every time.

At the start of this program, I gave you this all-important axiom, your key to the obtainment of any goal, dream or desire you can envision: Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.

Go for it!!

Troy :)