Tag: achievement

Be consistent and enjoy the process

If you learn to enjoy the process, the rest will fall into place. You’re more likely to end up with the result your desire and learn to be happier (both during the process and with the end result).

For example, instead of just saying, “I want to lose 25 pounds,” try to figure out what process you need to follow to do this. Do you need to cut out sugar and processed foods, work out for 30 minutes or more five days per week, drink more water, get better sleep, etc.? If you can learn to love doing those things, you can easily achieve the result you desire. And then when you get to your goal, you’ll also be much more likely to keep those healthy habits because you actually enjoy doing them! No more of this “yo-yo” dieting. No more working out really hard for 3 months and then not working out at all for the next 6 months.

You have to be consistent to achieve results. And the more you enjoy the boring, consistent process, the better results you’ll see.

Discipline

You need to have discipline to reach your potential. When people say they can’t wake up early, can’t find time to go to the gym, can’t eat the right foods, etc. what I hear is an excuse. You can have results or excuses, not both. If you want something bad enough you will find away. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. Don’t say I can’t. Say how can I?

Consistency, intensity, and reaching your full potential

Consistency trumps intensity, but you will never achieve your full potential without both.

If you do something once, you can’t reasonably expect results to come from it immediately. If you cold call one person, don’t expect one sale. If you work out one time, don’t expect six pack abs. If you make a one-time stock purchase, don’t expect to be able to retire tomorrow…

Consistency is about continually doing the bare minimum that you need to do in order to improve 1% that day. You have to consistently do the right things to achieve great results.

Intensity is another tool we should utilize to achieve the best results though…Sometimes it’s OK to stay up late and cram in a study session, but it’s not sustainable. If you do that every night, eventually you’ll crash. If you push it hard in the gym that’s great, but if you’re so sore that you can’t workout for a week afterwards, how much good did it really do? So many people follow diet programs or participate in 30-day challenges, which again, can be great, but when you stop following that, are you keeping the majority of the good behaviors or falling back into bad habits?

Intensity can help you achieve amazing results, but you need to have a stopping point. If you’re always doing things in an unsustainable manner, you’re going to burn out. It’s almost like redlining an engine for a car…you can ramp up to RPMs to pass somebody, but if you’re only driving in the redline, you’ll burn up you engine and do more harm than good.

When you decrease the intensity, you need to think of it like turning down the dimmer on a light switch. You’re not flicking a light switch on and off, just like you are not turning your intensity on and off. Because what usually happens there is you become an all-or-nothing person. You either work out really hard or you don’t work out at all. You eat extremely clean for 30 days, then you fall off the wagon. You invest a couple of times, then you don’t touch or even look at your retirement account for a year…you will yo-yo with manic highs and lows, and you’ll never reach your full potential.

Consistency needs to be the foundation of your success. That needs to be your number one goal – find something you know you should be doing everyday and do it. Don’t break the streak, but if you do, get back up and start it over immediately. Once you’ve found something that you can consistently do, focus on turning up the intensity more frequently. The more often you can do this, the better results you’ll get in a shorter timeframe.

On competition – with others and yourself

When doing anything, you’re not just competing against other people. You’re really competing against yourself.

Do not be content or disheartened based on the result. Be content or disheartened by judging your level of effort. Did you give as much effort as you are willing to in order to get the result that you desired? That’s the real question…if you’re not happy with the result, change your effort, your strategy, or both.

Measuring success

The popular thing to say is to stop comparing yourself to others. I agree with that to a degree. It should not be your primary focus. You need to measure your performance by asking yourself if you did the best you could. After all, if I compared my three-point shooting to Steph Curry’s, I would feel pretty bad about myself. But if I put in the dedicated practice everyday to get better, that’s all I could ask for.

But at a certain point, if you really want to become better, you have to measure your performance against others. Competition brings out the best in you. Otherwise it’s too easy to get complacent. It’s almost like when you’re working out. Your body can go a lot further than you let it, if only you allowed yourself to really open up/push yourself. But if you’re only working out by yourself, it’s easy to take your foot off the gas pedal. Plus, if you’re never around people who are better than you at something, how will you know what is possible? If they can do something, so can you. You just have to work for it.

So, yes…you shouldn’t primarily be focusing on comparing yourself or your situation to others. BUT that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look around to find motivation to better yourself. If you’re the best at “X” then you need to find others who can push you to new limits.