The Art of Consistency: Navigating Life's Thousand Molehills

George rarely ever says he would go back in time. When those conversations come up at the bar or on the back porch with friends, his usual answer is he wouldn't go back.

But on this topic, if he could wave a magic wand and go back to when he was 24 or 25, he would tell young George one thing:

"Bro, consistency is the key. Here is the key. Learn everything about how to be consistent. Learn everything about what consistency is. Learn how to leverage it for your life."

The Sporadic Years

George opened the episode with a confession about what he called his sporadic years, roughly his twenties through his early thirties.

"I would have a plan A and a plan B and a plan C, and if that didn't work, I'd go to plan M. And you're just jumping all over the place, and you're not drawing a line. You're not focused. You're not hitting the same spot over and over and over again."

He pointed to a specific example: his first business, Graphics for Worship. They designed images and videos for churches to use for their worship music and sermons.

"If I would have stayed consistent, if I would have learned this superpower, if I wouldn't have been so sporadic, I've often wondered where the heck would that business be today in understanding how large multimedia has gotten in church services."

He can't go back. Can't redo it. But it's a time that still makes him wonder.

Even when starting his current business, George B. Thomas LLC, he almost made the same mistake. Originally he was thinking: podcasting, video editing, HubSpot, all of it.

"And then finally, I was like, yeah. I'm not gonna be able to be consistent on that."

The Superpower Nobody Talks About

George showed up 30 minutes early to record this episode. He was that excited.

"If I look back at what's happened in my life and many others and just the kind of research and understanding of consistency, it's a superpower that I don't believe gets the light shined on it enough. When you harness it, when you understand what it is, when you figure out how to implement it in your personal and professional life, it's an absolute game changer. And it honestly is the thing that I can point back to that makes me different than most."

He broke it into two sides: input and output.

On the input side: educating himself day in, day out. In his business, that meant going into HubSpot Academy consistently every day to become the best at the software, the methodology, sales, marketing, service, operations.

On the output side: doing a podcast consistently every week. 272 episodes of the Hub Cast. Video tutorials. A tutorial a day, 3 a week, 7 a month. Consistently putting out content.

"This consistent churn of educating yourself and then educating others and creating content consistently, the brand that it's built, the business that it's allowed me to create, the life that it is allowing me to live, the stages that it's actually now putting me on and going around the world and speaking. It's so powerful."

79 Pounds in 7 Months

George didn't want listeners to think consistency is only about professional life.

In 2020, when the world was starting to fall apart, he consistently started to go for a walk a day. Then 2 walks a day. Then 3 walks a day.

"One walk a day isn't anything. Right? One tutorial is useless. But if you do a thousand tutorials, it becomes a thing. If you do 3 walks a day for 7 months, you lose 79 pounds. That's the thing."

He was researching ways to reduce inflammation because of his rheumatoid arthritis. Walking kept his joints limbered up. He found 3 to 4 things he could eat that were healthy and wouldn't cause inflammation. Then he just consistently ate those things.

"I didn't have to go to the gym. I didn't have to learn how to use all the machines. I had to learn how to put earbuds in, press play on my phone, and walk. And then pick out of the refrigerator 1 of 4 things to put in my mouth occasionally during the day."

He simplified the process until there were no excuses left.

Find the Fire, Pour Gasoline

Liz asked George how he decides what to be consistent with. How does he choose what to say no to?

His honest answer: "I suck at saying no. I just fundamentally suck at saying no."

But there's a difference between trying everything and being sporadic versus trying everything to look for the micro wins that add fuel to the fire.

"It's like find where there's fire and pour gasoline on it."

When they started doing a podcast and 3 months later went to an event and people were saying the podcast was awesome, that was the signal.

"Okay. I need to be consistent about this. This needs to become important in my life. I need to set up strategies, calendars, ideation time around this thing."

When he started doing a walk a day and lost 2 pounds, then 5 pounds, that was the signal.

"Holy crap. What would happen if I did 2 walks? Let me pour gasoline on this fire. Holy mackerel. Look what's happened to my body. Let me, what if I did 3 walks?"

Try a bunch of things. Give your ideas room to grow or fail. Don't care about the failures. Look at what's winning and run in those directions.

The Part Nobody Tells You

George shared the hard truth about why people struggle with consistency.

"The power of consistency is easily measured over long term, but almost impossible to measure short term. And so many of us, especially when we're stuck in the default or trying to get out of it, are looking for those short term wins and are less focused on the long term journey that we have to take to get to those things."

He also addressed a common misconception about what consistency even means.

"When most people hear the word consistency, I think they think that I've gotta do a daily grind each and every day. And then after 30 years, it'll be like... no. No. No. It's just consistency in whatever shape or form you decide to put it in."

Once a month on the day you choose is still consistency. Every other week is still consistency. You get to define the rhythm.

A Thousand Mole Hills

George identified the biggest thing people get wrong about consistency.

"I feel like they feel like it's 1 mountain, 1 large mountain. If I can just be consistent and get over this one large mountain. Or if I can just climb fast enough to get over this mountain, I don't even have to be consistent. I just have to get past this mountain."

But life is not one large mountain.

"It's a thousand mole hills. And so this idea of being able to be consistent over a thousand mole hills, slow, small, steady steps. I'm gonna say that again. It's not a fast paced run up the mountain and you're a winner. It's slow, small, steady steps over a thousand mole hills that actually get you to success, to money, to happiness. All of that is on the other side of the consistency that you've put into place."

The Confession

George got radically honest about where he had fallen off.

Those 3 walks a day? He's not doing them anymore. And it drives him nuts.

"I beat myself up on a daily basis that I don't step out of my office and at least go for 1 or 2 walks for the last year. And I mask it or hide it under the fact that you're starting a business, bro. You gotta be hustling. You could be doing something instead of that walk. And I know in my brain it's fundamentally bullcrap."

The walks became such a time suck at 3 per day that when life got busy, he stopped entirely instead of modifying.

"Did I lose 79 pounds? Yes. Have I gained some of that back? Absolutely. And it drives me nuts because I know I have the power to do it."

His realization: "It should be something that is sustainable. And if it isn't sustainable, it doesn't mean that you kill it. It just means that you need to modify it. And unfortunately, what I did is I killed it when I should have modified it."

The Dragon You Walked Away From

George named a pattern he's seen in himself and others.

"So many times, we fight the dragon. We fight the demon. We get past the thing that we never thought we would get past. And we go, victory. Let me sit down and take a break for a minute."

That's the trap.

"An object in motion always stays in motion. My biggest regret on anything is that I stop it."

He gave an example. If you Google "beyond your default," you'll find graphics for this podcast from about 4 years ago. He did maybe 4 episodes. And he stopped.

"Imagine where we'd be if I would've continued to consistently create content about beyond your default 4 years ago versus, what, 2, 3 months now we've been doing this? Like, dang it. Why did I stop?"

The Real Struggle

Liz asked George what part of consistency he's still struggling with right now.

His answer surprised even him as he unpacked it.

"It's about long term focus. It's funny. I wanna break that apart because I think the part that I have always struggled with is that it's actually long term AND focus, not long term focus. There's a difference in that."

The long term part, he's fine with. The focus and priorities part is where he battles.

"I feel like for a lot of my life, I've been trying to chop down trees, spiritually, mentally, physically, professionally, personally, relationships. But so many times, I've tried to hit the tree in a thousand different places instead of just consistently hitting the tree in one spot."

That's how you chop down a tree with an ax. You hit the same spot enough times to take a big enough chunk out to make that tree drop.

Starting his business felt like a massive monster tree. So he stopped chopping the other trees. Stopped educating himself at HubSpot Academy. Started reading and listening to Audible less than ever. Reading his Bible less than ever. Walking less. Eating wrong more.

"I over indexed, I believe. And fundamentally, for me, I believe I over indexed."

Preparing for this episode helped him unpack that. Maybe he needs to diversify his portfolio in his 1% better everyday mindset.

One Brick at a Time

George shared a story about Will Smith talking about his dad's shop. His dad broke down a wall, and Will and his brother had to build it back up.

They didn't just throw up a wall. They built it one brick at a time. They accumulated a bunch of little things to create the wall.

"Instead of your focus being, I need to consistently build this wall, your focus should be, I need to consistently lay this one brick."

Figure out what the micro thing is. The habit you need to form. The action you need to do. When you do that 20, 50, 100 times, it builds the thing you're trying to achieve.

"Quit trying to be consistent about building a brand. Just do a piece of content a week. Or 2 pieces of content a week. Or a piece of content a day. Whatever it is for you."

Whatever you're trying to be consistent in, how do you break it down to its simplest form?

How You Do Little Things

George shared a saying from a friend that he initially thought was just cute. Then he realized the power in it.

"How you do little things is how you do all things."

If you unpack that, it changes everything.

"Those who have little and treat it right will treat it right when they get much."

Pay attention to how you're doing little things. Because how you do those little things, when the consistency pays off and now you're on the main stages, you're playing in the big game, you've been brought up to the big leagues, you have the fundamentals. It's just there. You don't have to think about it. You just do it.

"Because you remember every brick you laid."

Quotable Moments

"The power of consistency is easily measured over long term, but almost impossible to measure short term."

"It's not a fast paced run up the mountain and you're a winner. It's slow, small, steady steps over a thousand mole hills that actually get you to success, to money, to happiness."

"Find where there's fire and pour gasoline on it."

"It should be something that is sustainable. And if it isn't sustainable, it doesn't mean that you kill it. It just means that you need to modify it."

"How you do little things is how you do all things."

Questions to Sit With

1. What are you trying to be consistent in, and how can you break it down to its simplest form? What's the one brick you need to lay?
2. Where have you won the fight against a dragon but then walked away from the consistency that got you there?
3. Are you hitting the tree in a thousand different places, or are you hitting the same spot over and over again?
4. What's showing fire in your life right now that deserves more gasoline?

Press play above to hear the full conversation. George shares the sporadic years that taught him what not to do, the walking routine that led to losing 79 pounds, and the honest confession about where he's fallen off and what he's learning about focus and priorities.