I am one of the most consistent people that I know. When I can I find
routines I stick to them.
When I was working shift work that was a challenge because my shifts
were all over the place for the first half of my career and then the
second half of my career they became a little more predictable but
still shift work. So I would come up with ways to bring consistency to
that inconsistent schedule. I picked days off that nobody else really
wanted, Sunday/Monday. That way I could go to church consistently and
I would have a day off that many people did not have where I could
actually get things done and relax all on the same day.
My shift work was normally two or three evening shifts that started
around one o 'clock and ended around 9 or 10 then two or three day
shifts that started at 6 30 in the morning and ended around 2 30 in
the afternoon. They would change from here to there. When I would get
a 10 to 6 I would be thrilled because that meant I could sleep in a
little bit and then miss all the traffic on the way home. My wife
didn't really like the 10 to 6 but that was my favorite shift because
I showed up and everything was already hopping, then I left while
everything was so still rocking and rolling, but I had set things up
so that they could survive and do their thing without me. It was a
good shift.
If I could have worked straight ten to sixes I would have. But my
consistency extends beyond just my shifts. When I'm confronted with
wrong, I tend to get away from it. I tend to call it out also.
I remember after my mother's knee surgery, her recovery went very
poorly and at one point my wife and I were looking forward to just an
afternoon break when my brother and his wife came down to see my mom.
When they got there, everybody said hello to mom. My wife and I got
ready to walk out the door and my mom announced that we were having a
meeting to discuss her future. Then she asked me for my advice.
Up until that point, she had not listened to my advice and said she
felt like a teenager rebelling against an authority figure in me. All
I was doing was trying to help. So she gave a preamble and then she
said, "So what advice do you have for me, David?"
And I told her "I have none because you haven't listened to my advice
up until this point. I'm not advising you to do anything." I said it
in a very emotional way and it was not accepted very well.
I get that way at church when I'm confronted with things that I fully
disagree with. I tend not to go along just to get along. And when
people ignore me and treat me like I'm less than them, I respond in
kind.
Unpredictable, because a lot of people don't expect that, but I was
raised to be an adult and to make my own decisions, and I do. It's
interesting to be unpredictably consistent. Most people don't expect
somebody to actually do what they say they will do.
Most people don't even expect you to show up. More and more what I'm
reading online from management gurus is most of being successful is
just showing up, which I do very consistently. I can't help it if I'm
rejected because other people are projecting images onto my canvas
that are not me or they're looking at me and expecting something but
they never express that expectation.
They just turn away when they don't get what they wanted or expected.
But I continue to be me, unpredictably consistent.
