A few random ramblings…

Another run out on the treadmill at the gym…

And, happily, another good performance. 4:05 this time, and only because the trainer had left a speed change later than he thought. I honestly think that I could have gone harder, sooner and finished under the 4 minute mark.

So, two days, two complete runs at a consistent 4minute pace has got me thinking about how consistency is so desired by, and in, people these days.

One of the first things that any employer looks for in staff is consistency… hopefully, consistent high quality in the work that they do… but even consistency in less than excellence is favourable over unpredictable behaviour and highly variable output.

But that’s easily recognised, the requirement for consistent and predictable behaviour in our colleagues. When they behave as we have come to expect, it’s easier for us to predict their actions and reactions to various things.

And personal relationships are no different. Try having a relationship with someone who’s all over the place, skittish… unpredictable. It’s chaos in nutshell and a huge source of stress for most people. All of this begins, I think, when we are kids.

I think kids are a great social barometer… there’s no guile, no pretense, no ambiguity in the way that they express their emotions about situations or the people around them. If they don’t like a person, they don’t hang around with them. In essence, they are a great example of seeking out the familiar… like attracting like.

Of course, kids can be mercilessly cruel when it comes to those they see as ‘outsiders’, as different to them. I know this from personal experience, growing up in a rural town where being different was akin to painting a target on your back for every redneck freak within a 100 kilometre radius. I spent so much time as a blood red smear on the concrete at school, that I considered making a career out of it.

In their own way, the people that kept me on the outside were consistent too… and in that way, their actions and reactions were, at least to some degree, predictable.

Which is why, I guess, sports fans and coaches love consistent players and officials. To know when you go onto a field that you’re going to get the same treatment, performance and application of the rules means that you can focus on playing the game. In that way, everyone wins… especially the paying public that come to see the games.

Human beings like the familiar and typically rail against the things which are unknown, strange, foreign to them. At it’s worst, though, I think it leads to the kind of sectarian violence that we see all over the world, with the Middle East being an obvious example. However, those same differences, the ‘unknown’ has also been the driving force behind some of histories greatest people.

Explorers braved the unknown… perilous seas and oceans, deadly mountains, ice and snow… the vast vacuum of space in the heavens above us… because they felt unknown had answers and they wanted to be the first to find them.

Cook finding and charting Australia, New Zealand and much of the Pacific Islands.

Columbus sailing to the Americas.

Hilary climbing Everest.

Scott and Amundsen reaching the South Pole.

That chicken that crossed the road (don’t laugh, if you’ve ever kept chickens you’ll know they rate ’self preservation’ very highly on their list of priorities).

But to be the best, to be the first, someone has to give you a chance, take a risk that you’ll deliver on what  you say you can do. To do that, you need to show them ability, a proven record of rising to a challenge.

Consistency.