PERSISTENT CONSISTENCY, OR WAS IT CONSISTENT PERSISTENCY?

By Dan Trotter on December 21, 2017 in Sport

A plumber and his kingy, by Dan Trotter

One thing is for certain in this world: to get solid success, you need to be focused, determined, and unwavering in your goals. And, you need to put in your ten thousand hours to be become an expert. Some millennials may disagree, and good luck to them, but don’t come to me looking for advice – not now, or when the wheels fall off.
In my passionate pursuit of fishing, as in my business career and in my relationships, the thing that has become truer and truer over the years is the proof of persistent consistency, or consistent persistency. If we all dig deep enough, we know that it’s true. Keep doing what you do, and do it well. Deliver consistency and you will be in the right place at the right time and, hey bingo, things will start to happen that you’d always dreamed of.
Like that 80lb kingie outfit of yours doubling over with line spewing off it faster than you can believe; like your knots holding tight and your mate’s net shot being perfect; like that sweet, sweet feeling of success with a 10-15kg yellowtail kingfish in your arms and a smile the size of the Great Australian Bite spread across your salty, windblown face.
Write it down. What were the keys to success? Repeat them, and soon enough you’ll be able to replicate the results. Then, further refine them and see just how good you can get.
I’ve said it too many times to count: “Fishing reflects life, life reflects fishing.” There are great days when everything is outstanding, and there are shit days when nothing goes right. Months will go by in life where you can’t take a wrong turn, and then there will be months where you can hardly scrape yourself out of bed. But, if you’re up early for enough sunrises, sooner or later the magic will start to happen.
And so it is that December, the final month of the year, is right on our doorstep and banging louder than ever to remind us that there’s only 31 days left in another calendar year. How are you going to make the final days count? Last year I stuck a post-it note to my computer that read, “There are 525,600 minutes in a year, there are 8,760 hours in a year,” and it has remained there ever since. Some days it motivates me, other days it makes me want to collapse on the ground with despair as time slips by, but it always reminds me that life is precious; life is fleeting, and it’s up to us to make the minutes and hours count.
So, if you love your fishing, just get out there. Make the time for a pre-work spin off the stones for tailor, kings, or bonito. Or an afternoon session on twilight reds with a mate in a tinnie. Perhaps you need to take a day off work mid-week, or a day away from the family on the weekend, and go chasing kings on an offshore hard reef, or venture to the wider grounds where the cobalt currents hold so many surprises, to see if you can hook yourself a billfish or mahi-mahi.
If you’re lucky enough to catch, be thankful and appreciate the fish you catch, and make the most of the meal and nutrition that its life has provided you and yours.
Enjoy and persist, consistently!