Consistency Over Intensity
Here is the truth I keep coming back to: progress comes through consistency. You can have the highest ambition known to humankind, but without consistency you have done nothing. You can pour out the single most awe inspiring effort in a single moment, and still lose. Steady beats spectacular. Every time.
I learned this the slow way, on a steep trail with my daughter. We were climbing a series of switchbacks up a long elevation, and she kept hunting for shortcuts, cutting the corners, trying to find the faster line up. Each time she did, she ended up exhausted and breathless, waiting for me at the next turn. We reached the same point together, but her energy was gone, and she needed a long rest. I just kept my steady pace. No bursts. No leaps. Just one consistent step after another. By the next set of switchbacks, she had stopped looking for the shortcut. The deceptive nature of shortcuts had taught her something the hard way.
That hike is the whole lesson in miniature. Resilience and continuous dedication toward a single goal builds capability over time, and eventually that accumulation begins to compound. The people who stand markedly ahead of their peers are rarely there because of raw talent or luck. They are there because they enjoyed the compounded benefits of accumulated effort, small, sustained, incremental progress that catapulted them past everyone chasing rapid gains.
Why steady wins
Progress is made up of small increments. When I was younger, I believed progress came from large leaps forward, so I spent my life searching for the perfect spot to take that one big leap. What I never realized is that I could have been taking small steps forward the whole time, and the end result would have been significant progress. The accumulation of small increments is the real ingredient of progress.
Look at nature and you’ll see it. A giant machine moving a mound of earth pales in comparison to the millennia of slow erosion caused by a single drip of water. Small incremental progress is the rule, not the exception. We are just enamored with the culture of now, the instant rise to fame, the sudden discovery, the shortcut. We don’t talk about the countless hours Mozart spent at the piano, or the hours Kobe Bryant spent on his jump shot. We only celebrate the rise. But true mastery is obtained one day at a time, one small increment after another. A full year of repetitive behavior will always beat a single moment of sudden inspiration.
When all else fails
When all the planning is complete and it’s time for execution, just be consistent. You grow by being consistent. You gain strength by being consistent. If you are not consistent first, you are weak, unpredictable, and unstable. So when all else fails, be consistent about something.
If you’re like me, you’ve failed a thousand times or more at some program. I have too. So I stopped trying to be perfect and just picked one thing, running. I get my butt out the door and run. Every day. Without fail. Simple. Not complicated. Consistency beats exceptional effort in a long distance battle.
How to actually do it
The mechanism is simple, and it comes down to habits:
Pick a good activity. It doesn’t have to be the perfect choice. Something good, slightly better than nothing, repeated daily, will produce results.
Go small, real small. Instead of going big and failing a few days later, ratchet back to something you can repeat. My pushups started at literally 1 per day. After a year I was easily doing 100, 200, even 300, because I kept the habit. You need to get small so you can become big.
Build the habit before the intensity. Your motivation will ALWAYS fade, you cannot overcome what no human has ever overcome. Habits carry you when motivation is gone, so that by the time your mind tries to talk you out of it, you’ve already done the work.
Give it 90 days. Follow any good plan for 90 days, three months, twelve weeks, and you will see remarkable improvement in your life.
The reframe on big accomplishments
We chase the monumental leap because we think greatness requires something unique, special, and awe inspiring. That thinking is wrong. To be like the person you admire, you simply need to be consistent at something positive for a long period of time. That’s it. Stop using the “great, awesome, and powerful” thing you think you have to do as an excuse not to do anything at all.
Want to be healthier? Pick a healthy activity and do it every day.
Want to be smarter? Pick a mentally challenging activity and do it every day.
Want to be a better writer? Write something every day.
Want to be a better runner? Run every day.
Want to learn a language? Do something in that language every day.
A single great day cannot undo the damage of a string of non productive days, but a string of small, consistent days will quietly carry you to greatness. Pick what you want, find the behavior that gets you there, and repeat it for 365 days.
Progress, not perfection, and that, in the end, is the value of it all.
