Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to success.
Day in. Day out. You show up. You compete hard. You do the work.
It sounds sooooo much easier than it actually is.
There are a few things that you need in order to build better consistency in pursuing your training / career / life goal.
- Change in Focus
- Change in Environment
- Change in Accountability
I'm going to tackle each of these in the next three emails (so stay tuned!)
Change in Focus
One major reason we fail to be consistent in our work is a focus in the wrong location. We tend to only focus on the goal (outcome) instead of the work needed today (process).
Fixating on where we are trying to go - and many times, how far we are from that place - destroys our motivation.
"It's too far. It's too hard. I can't get there."
What we instead have to do is train ourselves to focus on what we're going to do today to take a step forward.
I found myself in an obscene mountain of debt back in 2015. I'd made some big investments that didn't pan out like I anticipated. I'd hired some team members before we were financially ready. I was trying to make moves to grow bigger than we were ready to.
And by 2016, I found myself buried until the back-breaking pressure and stress of debt. It wrecked me.
Yet, whenever I was in a decision-making position, if I focused on how much debt I had left to pay off, I tended to spend money elsewhere because "$100 wasn't going to make much a dent."
We do the same thing with our own goal.
- I can't lose the 20 lbs this week, so I'm going to abandon my meal plan and go back to what I ate before.
- I'm not going to get that promotion this year so instead of continuing to build my skills, I'm going to happy hour.
We become distracted with the idea that where we are trying to go is too much to tackle in a day/week/month, so instead of choosing to make progress by focusing on what we can do today, we quit.
We must change our focus from the end goal to embracing the process.
Quit focusing on tomorrow. Focus on one thing you can do today.
Quit focusing on how much work is left to reach your goal. Focus on what work you can achieve today.
Change your focus from focusing on all that's left to do and toward one thing that can be done.
And like bathing, you want to repeat this process daily, not letting your gaze get toward the future point and instead keep it fixated on what step you'll take today.
Most people believe that because they can't change everything today, they shouldn't change something today. "If I can't do it all, why even do it," is the rally cry of failed dreams & excuse makers.
Not Competitors.
Don't let your focus play tricks on you. Focus on today. Commit to doing something that moves you forward.