There is a lady we know

There is a lady we know

Thank you for joining us at the end of this week. We hope you are keeping warm and doing well.

Last week, Shinell sent me a picture with the words: “Every exceptional person I know is dangerously consistent“. It resonates deeply because deep down, I think we all know this is true.

“If only I could be more consistent!” is something all of us think more regularly than we would like to admit. This forms part of conversations we have at least once a week (either personally or professionally) with people who feel desperate to finally get out of their own way and progress towards the goals they’ve had for years.

This past Sunday, 34,000 brave souls lined up for the Comrades marathon. This year was a down run, covering the 90km between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. I don’t know what you think about people who run the Comrades – most people look at these athletes thinking they are some combination of impressive, inspiring and crazy. One of these brave souls is a lady we both know, who was going for her first back-to-back finish, having done the up run last year. To my mind, she is the epitome of someone who is dangerously consistent. I’ll tell you why:

• Training for the Comrades, like most other endurance events, forms a significant part of your life for at least six months. Since the start of 2025, she has run over 1,250 km in preparation for the race.
• Every week, she ran four or five times, covering between 50km and 90km per week.
• Since your big runs happen on weekends, you have to plan accordingly. A couple of times, to be on time for her son’s rugby match, she would start running at 3:00 on a Saturday morning to cover her 40km distance before kick-off.
• When it rains, she runs on the treadmill. Anyone who has ever run more than 20 meters on a treadmill knows how soul-destroyingly boring it is. She doesn’t make excuses.
• Running shoes are the first thing she packs when going away on holiday or for the weekend.
• Travelling for work, the routes are planned, knowing exactly where she needs to run to cover the required distance.

This lady is not Gerda Steyn (although I would love to meet Gerda). She is not a professional athlete. Nor is she crazy. She is happily married, a mom of two boys, socially active, employed full-time, and committed to all these things. She is a normal person. Yet, she gets it done. In a dangerously consistent way.

It is important to mention that it would be difficult to do all these things without a strong support system. Her husband, one of my best friends, is very supportive of her running. He is there at many races, along with the boys, carrying her things, taking photos and holding on to her snacks until she comes running past. It is a team effort.

She smashed the down run, finishing the race in less than 10 hours. We looked at the stats this morning, and she was in the top 18% of all female finishers and the top 32% overall. A truly incredible achievement for someone who is fairly inexperienced in distance running. We are incredibly proud of her!

If I could change the quote Shinell shared somewhat, it would read “Every exceptional person I know is dangerously boringly consistent”. Being consistent is boring. Getting up to do your long run on a Sunday morning when everyone else is still sleeping sucks. We all love the shiny new thing, but if you don’t stick to the training plan, you won’t be ready for the race. No matter how much you want to. But reaping the rewards of being consistent is not boring. At all. The sense of achievement and personal pride you gain from accomplishing something hard is immensely rewarding and fulfilling.

But you will only get there through the discipline of being boringly and dangerously consistent. And that is great news! You don’t need special talents, new shoes, a lucky break or a genie in a bottle. But you do need to make a decision. Every day.

Below is a photo of this lady we know holding the two medals she got on Sunday, one for finishing and the other for completing back-to-back races. Look at that smile!

Thank you for reading. Please share this piece with anyone you think could benefit from it. And please let us know in what way you would like to be more consistent. If you need help being more consistent, reach out to us. Our performance coaching can help you do that. 

You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.