So I have been keeping a series of commitments, including this writing thing, everyday. There are some days, like this evening where I really just do not want to do it. However, here is an important thought to ponder. Even when you do the bare minimum it is significantly more progress than nothing. Iterative improvement occurs through consistent and repeating effort over a long period of time. If you want to improve at anything at all then you are going to have to perform effort, repeatedly.
I bring this up because I played golf today, and the experience was not great. I seemed to have lost all my progress that I had gained when I was trying to improve a few years ago. I was wondering why? Then it dawned on me. I have not played or practiced in a long time. If I would have kept up with my golf practice, even if it was in very small increments then I would have kept my skills.
There is just no other way. This means that as you stretch a long duration of days together of doing a consistent habit then there are going to be days when you are just unable put in the quality that you normally do. Instead you are going to do the minimum, so that you can check the box and be done. Repetition and iteration is never consistent in the amount of workload. There are good days and average days, just as long as there are no nothing days.
Nothing days are the killers. Nothing days are what end up stacking up and causing you the most harm. Nothing days become nothing weeks, which turn in to nothing months and years. Think for a moment of something that you wish you would have accomplished in your last 5 years. What if instead of all nothing days, you instead had a bunch of really small progress days? You would have that much more time under your belt and you would have made some solid progress.
Here is what I have noticed. Incremental, everyday progress produces many minimal days, this is true. However, when you string a bunch of these together you will eventually experience great days, when you accomplish a lot. Those days really advance you forward, but if and only if, you follow them up with a long continuous string of consistency. I have learned that the cumulative impact of accumulation far out exceeds any individual effort on my part.
So do not feel so bad when you have minimal days. Even though I feel pretty miserable right now looking at the crumpled up golf score card on my hotel room desk. If I would have embraced the minimum then I would have not quit practicing golf. I would have practices and been ok with having minimum days. I have learned to accept these minimum days. There are days when I am not that great at anything, but at least I made some progress, even though it was very small.
