But…
I read something interesting recently about replacing the word but with the word and. They said something along the lines of, “oh I would eat healthier BUT I have no time.” So we want to change that to, “I would eat healthier AND I have no time so…”
It is easy to give reasons for not doing something, there could be millions. There could be millions of but’s.
There is only ONE reason to do something. If your priority is to learn how to write better? Why write for any other reason than to write better? Why read a book if it won’t help you write better? Why see a movie if it won’t help you write better? Why go to an event if it won’t help you write better?
What about the flip side? We’re past that. You want to write better, okay cool. You are going to write 3 articles a week (wait… that’s me).
So what happens when it is Saturday night and you have a football game and you haven’t written your piece for Sunday yet? Oh, it’s okay to skip one week right? Oh, but you had a football game. Oh, but you’re tired. Oh, but no one will notice. Oh, but you don’t have a topic selected yet.
Nope. Unacceptable.
I want to write every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday AND I had a football game SO I will…
I want to BECOME a better writer. How can I BECOME anything if I do NOTHING? Not possible.
People say if you aren’t moving forward, you’re moving backward. Oh yeah, I could skip an article, it would be EASY. But, I wouldn’t become a better writer if I decided that missing one day wasn’t important.
“You do everything as well as you do anything”
If you skip the small things, how can you consistently do the big things?
This past weekend, Jesse Itzler was one of the speakers at the 10X Conference I attended in Miami hosted by Grant Cardone. Jesse recalled a story about success and habits that attribute to it. He said something along the lines of, “I was outside running through a sprinkler with my kids when my wife called us in for dinner. I started to just run inside and realized the garden hose was not put away. But, I said, ‘you know, it’s just a garden hose’ and then stopped. It is NOT just a garden hose.”
Consistency is without a doubt, the most important thing. The most important thing for success, for growth, for you.
You ever realized how nobody notices the 6 weeks in a row that you get to work 10 minutes early but the one day you’re 15 minutes late, EVERYONE notices?
Consistency.
You ever realized how nobody notices the dishes you wash each and every night but the one night you leave them dirty, EVERYONE notices?
Consistency.
It’s easy to say that you need a break. It’s easy to say that it’s only one time. It’s easy to say it’s only the garden hose. It’s easy to say that you’re too busy.
Talking about Tim Duncan, Coach Williams said the following about Tim Duncan:
“In 19 years, Tim Duncan was never late for a practice, workout, bus. That’s a standard of excellence u tend to take for granted.” -Monty Williams
Consistency.
Consistency gets you noticed, consistency gets you results, consistency gets you where you want to go.
Tim Grover, the man who trained Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade is someone I follow on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. He wrote a book called Relentless. In that book he talks about the greats. He talks about what it means to be relentless.
Those who are relentless, they show up, they do the work, and they get it done. Every single time, they get it done. Every single time.
Consistency wins.
You just HAVE to be consistent in the right direction. If you do the wrong thing every single day, every single week, every single month, you will NOT end where you want to.
Personally, I know that when I skip my nightly reading, it hurts me. I know when I skip the gym, it hurts me. I know that.
I know that while I’m not reading, while I’m not learning, someone else is.
I’ll jump back to the example of the person who wants to get better at writing as I close this piece out.
You can better in many many ways. But, you need to have the right information.
You cannot get better at writing if your mentor has terrible grammar and you look to model yourself after them. Where you get your information is almost as important as what you do with the information.
Repeated action, in the right direction, over and over and over. Consistency wins.
“Success is the result of relentless proper actions persisted over time”