What I Learned From a McDonald's Cheeseburger

Consistency is Key

My father was an educator. Not a professor with a PHD, but a person who went through life, learned, applied, evolved, and from that taught. From as early as I can remember he was telling me stories of his life, and at the end of the stories there was always a lesson. On this day, I was around 5 or 6 years old, in Lake Zurich, IL, dad and I were out and about running errands. I remember like it was yesterday, I can still see the McDonalds, the playground with the Big Mac burger jail, and the joy of getting a happy meal. As we pulled up and ordered, my dad took a moment to share a lesson, which he asked, “Have you ever had a McDonalds cheeseburger anywhere else except here?” I replied with “Yes,” and he said, “They taste the same don’t they?” Once again, I replied “Yes,” to which he responded with a simple answer, “That is why they are successful.” That story has stuck with me for over 40 years and still holds true today. Yes, there could be an argument that McDonalds is not the same as they were, but use Chick-Fil-A, or Tim Horton’s, use any successful business or personal journey and you’ll see the path to success is consistency. This is where it gets tricky though, because there is no time frame to consistency, meaning there’s no crystal ball that says if you are consistent for this long you will be successful. Which is why whatever you are consistent with will produce a result of said consistency. Being consistent with negative things creates poor results quicker than being consistent with positive things, which takes much longer. Taking consistency to another level gets even more complicated when you’re a parent, a boss, or a teammate. Now you are expected to be consistently stable, positive, upbeat, optimistic, and the list goes on. Just know it all starts with you. How you choose to approach each day is imperative to the outcome of that day, and to the people you are responsible for beyond yourself. Easier said than done, but the good news is consistency is an evolution, and to those who are looking for a change should realize you don’t have to be perfect; you just have to be present. You don’t walk into the gym and bench press 300lbs having never worked out, but if you follow a routine and you’re consistent with it you can get there. The same goes for your relationship with others. I have not always made the right choices as a father or a boss, but at a minimum I am present because I know if I am present, I can learn, improve, evolve, and grow into a better person. It starts with having a small goal, then branches off into having consistent self-accountability for that goal, and finally expanding your goals as you move towards who you feel you need to become. The benefit of this is, even if you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up, you’ll have created a habit that will benefit you in whatever you do.

I will always keep these messages brief because the goal is to get people thinking, sharing, communicating, and spreading knowledge through this platform that can help others on their journey. But I will say this for my first few posts, I don’t have a magic pill. And most of what I share will be so obvious it almost sounds remedial, but it all starts with small things. A baseball coach of mine once asked me, “Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito, an elephant, or a giraffe?” I replied, “a mosquito,” and he responded with “It’s the little things that will get ya.” Speaking from experience I am an overthinker, trying to find the best possible route to success, but rarely just taking one step at a time consistently to reach my goal. Hence the reason I want to keep the stories simple to get the conversations going! I look forward to hearing about the impact—positive or negative—that consistency has had on your life and welcome any questions or discussions so we can all grow from each other.

A good read is “The Power of Consistency” by Weldon Long, which takes a deeper dive into the mental and physical process in creating consistency.