Nicholas Cage is one of the finest actors of all time and his portrayal of a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas will go down as one of the greatest performances in Hollywood. Yet in 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2014, he was nominated for the Golden Raspberries, an award given for the worst performances. Every great actor has their fair share of duds but Nicholas Cage’s recent career graph has been anything but consistent.
You won’t label a rookie as being out-of-form.
And you won’t call a champion professional inconsistent.
It’s easy to confuse one with the other.
To label someone as out-of-form, they need to have proven that they have performed before, stood up when it mattered, dug deep when it was required and stood out from the rest.
Out-of-form happens even to the best-of-the-best.
A player ranked Number 1 can suddenly be injured, face a personal upheaval, lose motivation, get muddled in the head and suddenly see a dip in their ability to conjure up the magic on a consistent basis.
Tiger Woods was out-of-form for nearly a decade before he won a title in 2019. Before that, he had won his last title in 2009.
Andre Agassi was ranked Number 1 in 1995. By 1997, injuries and personal turmoil meant he sank to 141 in the rankings. In 1999, he won the French and US Opens and ended the year at Number 1.
Amitabh Bachan, one of the greatest actors of all time, went into a slump from the mid-80s to most of the 90s until his career was revived by a quiz show.
Inconsistency affects all of us at some point.
When someone waxes and wanes in their performance, they are called inconsistent. They might do something amazing once in a while but their performance is like a lucky draw.
On his day, Yusuf Pathan could pummel attacks with his heavy-hitting and was a part of two World Cup-winning squads. But his big-hitting was inconsistent and he soon lost his place in the side.
The Pakistani cricket team is one of the most inconsistent. On their day they can annihilate the best of teams and when they don’t turn up, they can play awfully. This inconsistency is exhilarating as much as it is frustrating.
Nicholas Cage is one of the finest actors of all time and his portrayal of a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas will go down as one of the greatest performances in Hollywood. Yet in 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2014, he was nominated for the Golden Raspberries, an award given for the worst performances. Every great actor has their fair share of duds but Nicholas Cage’s recent career graph has been anything but consistent. The same can also be said of another great Al Pacino who went from acting in iconic movies like The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon and Scent of a Woman to ‘what the hell happened to him’?
Becoming more consistent means understanding that each performance matters in one way or the other. In Stephen Covey’s book ‘First Things First’ he writes about making and keeping promises to ourselves which later extend to making and keeping promises to others. That’s laying the ground for consistency. In one of the places where I worked, the leadership rounded everyone up and said punctuality was important. In a week’s time, the leaders themselves slipped back to old ways and the topic of coming early wasn’t raised again — an example of inconsistency in approach and deed.
Out-of-form is basically losing what you once had, not deriving the same joy from something or finding something that came easily to you, difficult. In life, as in sport, our form slumps due to a variety of reasons — boredom, lack of challenges, toxic work cultures and debilitating leadership, personal upheavals. When this isn’t tackled, it leads us to become disengaged and inconsistent.
Coming back to form might sometimes require you to make wholescale changes like changing your story, job, career, installing better habits, upskilling and moving in a new direction. Even sportsmen try out different things to regain lost form. Doing the same thing and wishing that you will regain form is not a very wise approach.
All of us lose form at some point or the other. But most of us don’t pay much attention to consistency as it is boring. It involves discipline and repetition, things that are hard to sustain. Consistency also means looking for new solutions and implementing them rigorously.
When we lose form, consistency invariably goes out of the window. If a batsman isn’t middling the ball, the only way for him to regain lost form is to show up and face more deliveries.
A lack of results = a lack of effort = a lack of results.
It’s a vicious circle.
When you see people or organizations that have fallen by the wayside, you can be assured that they are doing one of two things;
a) doing the wrong things consistently
b) venturing forth without any goal or plan, crossing their fingers and hoping things change for the better
Staying consistent with regards to good practices and habits ensure that the upheavals will be fewer, meaning you will go out form fewer times and when you do, you will have the tools to bounce back.
You will see this in the best players and the best businesses.
The hard work of consistency will ensure that you will never be too far away from good form.
