Are You Consistent?

I wrote about consistency a week or so ago. I think it is an issue that continues to go unchecked in many of our lives. Will our actions line up with our words and will our words line up with our beliefs? Will we do what we say we will do or will we have a long list of goals (if we make one) and hardly ever have anything on that list that is complete? Where are we headed and where do we want to go? What are we doing to get there or to change our direction?

Allen_sitting_smile

(Picture taken by Francine Lange, copyright 2007)


I recently learned a great lesson about consistency this week (feb 12-16), but first let me give you the context. I’ve been wanting to do some new and different things with my book so that it just doesn’t remain as words on a page. Since early last year, my colleague and friend, Andrew Seltz “the Go-to Guy”, has been assisting me in brainstorming goals. One such goal was to do an audio book. I’ve always wanted to do one, although I wasn’t totally sure of the process. Some of the people who purchased my book have inquired about making an audio version available.

While talking with “the Go-To Guy”, we came up with the idea of having a new poem appear on my website each week as an audio file. We decided to do this for 2007. I got to work, with my wife on planning a weekly schedule, planned the process of recording (I didn’t have access to a Recording Studio, so we had to figure out another way that would still yield high quality) and I got to work recording the first few performances. Then I hit a lag as I had to figure out how to do the conversion of the files to mp3.

Once this was done, with the help of “the Go-To Guy”, I put the first five audio poems on my site and have gotten some good responses since it’s release on Monday, February 19th. Then came the dillema. I was already behind schedule - two weeks into February with no audio files ready to go for the designated dates. I only had five days before I would be leaving the country to go on a missions trip to Africa. I wouldn’t be back until March - so do I just remain behind schedule? Then I remembered my blog post on Consistency. But, surely I couldn’t prepare five audio performances for the website before I left the country. I have a full time job and a lot to do to prep for the trip. But then I remembered “consistency” and I realized that I had to get back on track with the schedule.

The easy way out would be to wait, enjoy my week and relax watching my favorite shows while winding down after work. But, if it’s really important, then it needs to be done. So from Tuesday to Thursday of this past week, I went to work and came home around 6:30pm and went straight to working on this project until around 3:30am each night. On Tuesday I recorded the performances. On Wednesday I edited them and added music. Then I uploaded two of the pieces which were ready to go. Thursday, I came home and went to an evening church service - (taped one of my favorite shows) got back around 10:30pm and stayed up till 4:00am finishing and uploading the others for the rest of the month and the first week in March. At the time of this posting, I still have not seen the show I taped :-)

After I uploaded the last of the poems for the month, I went to work on my second video-poem for youtube, which will be uploaded 2/24/07. I’m tired, but amazingly, the project was done in three days and I had a wonderful time working on the project! Being a person who periodically fights with mediocrity and procrastination - this is an amazing accomplishment and I am grateful to God for the strength, determination and the mindset. The Bible does let us know that a work can be accomplished when there is first, a willing mind.

So what is the lesson that I learned? “If you focus on your goal and be willing to work hard, smart and to sacrifice time to get the goal accomplished - you will most likely be successful, even when you think that it can’t be done.” I’ve always known this in theory, with some practical applications, but now I know it on an even deeper level.

Just think: many of us complain or make excuses for why we can’t get anything done - we wish we could be “somewhere” but opt to live a lazy, unfocused, distracted life and then wonder why we don’t suceed in life. In another blog post the statement is made, “We disqualify ourselves.”

God has a plan for your life. There are specific aspects to that plan that only He can do. There are other aspects that are for you to do. I ask you the same question that I ask myself… “What are you doing with your life?” Are you Consistent?

Let me know what you think. - Allen Paul Weaver III -

Filed under: Book Publishing • Self-Help • Transition News

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