I want to share with you one of the most important lessons I learned this year. If you apply this principle in 2012, you’ll find it has an amazing power to transform your life and bring you success.
It’s the secret that finally got me to successfully adopt an exercise routine that I could stick to longer than any other time in my life. Usually I would only last a week or two with my knew fitness habit, and then it would fall to the wayside.
But this time I did one thing differently and it made all the difference. What was the secret?
I worked on my goal at least a little consistently every day.
You see, previously I would start small by setting a goal to work out 3 times a week. After all, I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. I figured if I got that down I could then up it to 4 and then 5 days.
The problem is it was too easy to lose momentum. Every day I would have this little conversation with myself about whether not that day was one of my exercise days or now. Even if I set specific days (e.g. Monday, Wednesday and Friday) it still wasn’t enough to reach critical momentum.
I needed to be more consistent.
Consistency leads to habits. Habits for the actions we take every day. Action leads to success.
It’s like when they launch a space shuttle. Most of the fuel is burned early on to move against gravity and the friction of air. However, at a point the shuttle finally reaches a point where it doesn’t have to burn nearly as much fuel to escape the atmosphere.
When you first begin changing your behavior (i.e. exercise more, eat less, read more books, etc.) it takes a certain momentum to overcome the patterns that you have set previously. At first you have to expend more energy to escape those old patterns. But as you consistently focus on behaving in a new way, the pathways in your brain literally begin to change.
Over time it becomes easier to maintain that momentum. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.
So rather than just hitting the “rocket boosters” three times a week, I tried hitting them every day.
I told myself that even if I just put my exercise clothes on and got on the elliptical, then that counted as achieving my exercise goal for that day. It didn’t matter if I was on there for five minutes or forty-five minutes. It didn’t matter if my average heart rate was 135 or 165.
At first my goal was just to take action every day. Then with time I could focus on the effectiveness of my actions — the results of my workout.
When I went into the gym every day, I quickly started to feel momentum. It was a lot harder to skip a day when I had done it every day for the previous two weeks. It was a lot harder to rationalize my way out of it. Plus the pressure was off because, again, I was focusing on consistency, not results at first.
And, as they say, within a month the new habit had formed.
So how can you apply this to your internet business?
We teach our coaching students to do at least one thing every day to build your business. As long as you sit down at your desk and take one action that day, then it counts. It doesn’t matter if you did the most important action or even if it produced results. What matters is that you took consistent action.
Soon you will find that momentum kicks in. Working on your business becomes a habit. You will see more results working on your business for 30 minutes a day then if you tell yourself you’ll do two hours a week…at least at first. That’s because you need to form a habit. Habits only come from consistency.
If you want to get even better results, even be consistent with the time of day that you do it.
So, as you think about the goals that you want to set in 2012, remember the following.
- Success is reached one habit at a time.
- Habits are formed through consistent action.
- At first, focus on consistency not results. Later you can work on the effectiveness of your action.
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Great post! I like it because I tend to set very lofty goals, get easily discouraged, and quit. So setting a goal to just “show up” is perfect for where I’m at. Thanks Jason!
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Sterling,
Awesome post, man!
I’m starting to apply this lesson this EXACT INSTANT. I know I’ll get unbelievable results from it, for any result I want to achieve.
Thanks!
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Jay, what helps me is to set the lower and upper limits to any goal that I achieve. I need the daily approach as well, but honestly to have a healthy boundary, I have need the limits. I ask myself, “What’s the lowest performance standard I’m willing to accept, and what are the the upper constraints?”
Why? The minimum bar is set high enough to accomplish the goal, but the upper constraint is to prevent burnout and limit growth so that you don’t take on too much too fast, thus causing more harm than good.
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Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) Reply:
Fantastic comment, I really like that approach.
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Damon,
I love that approach. We do something similar. Thanks for sharing.
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Exactly what Zig Zigler created these for…http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1936719215/permissionmarket/ref=nosim/
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Jay, It’s great to read about being consistent, because it is important.
I believe I established the habit of taking action, and now I’m trying to figure out how to improve my results from my actions. Which in some ways is more difficult than taking the miss guided action consistently.
Other than that developing habits takes desire. I just focus on my long term goals and then develop an action plan to move me in that direction.
You can’t get anywhere if you sit still. I’d rather get moving and make a mistake than sit on my duff wishing I could go some where better than here.
Jared
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Excellent point, Jared. Eventually you have to make sure that consistent action is getting increasingly more effective.
That’s where tracking results really helps me. I choose a key metric and watch it every day to measure my improvement.
“I’d rather get moving and make a mistake…”
Love it!
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Learning how to succeed is something I’ve been working on for quite some time. Struggling with the doubt, wrestling with inaction and learning to take that first step has been a struggle for me ever since I started this process of becoming an entrepreneur. Quite frankly, becoming a coaching student and being consistent though out this process has been a huge accomplishment for me.
In my constant search for personal growth, I came across a little book entitled “The Practicing Mind”, by Thomas M. Sterner.
Basically, it teaches how to learn to enjoy being in the moment while working toward a bigger goal, no matter how boring and tedious the work in that moment is. It’s a very Zen approach to accomplishment.
One of the lessons it teaches is every similar to what you have said here Jay. Each moment you are doing something toward your goal is an accomplishment and should be considered as such. Don’t focus on the BIG goal, because that can be overwhelming and discouraging. Instead focus on the smaller bits and learn to celebrate those successes. The next thing you know the big goal has been reached and you’ve hardly noticed the journey.
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
” becoming a coaching student and being consistent though out this process has been a huge accomplishment for me”
Congrats! And you moved locations during the course as well. That definitely takes focus.
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One thing I’ve found really helps to make taking action easier – make a list of the first three actions you’ll take the next time you sit down to work on your business. Do this as the last thing before calling it a day. That way, the next time you sit down to get to work, you’re not left thinking ‘ok, what should I do today’. It is right there in front of you.
Another clever thing – if you have a task you need to complete the next day, get about 99% of it complete the day before, then you only have 1% of it left for next time. It is a total mind trick, but it works. I will type up an email I have to put a lot of thought into, and then leave it short of clicking the send button. Next day, I sit down, click send, and I’ve already accomplished something on my to do list.
This is really about creating instantaneous momentum. In physics, you’re supposed to have velocity in order for there to be momentum. In internet business and productivity, it seems as tough I’ve come up with a way to break that law. Suck it, Einstein!
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Bret,
Awesome tips! I’m going to give those a try. I do find that the momentum I establish first thing in the morning really affects the tone of the rest of the day.
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Well said!every little things you do become a huge thing in the future.
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Hi, I am from Germany, so please forgive me my mistakes.
I guess the second key is resilience.
What helps me most, is the fact, that I developed a way to transform frustration to motivation for myself.
My first self founded company was liquidated by my two Co-founders yesterday. They did it, without even asking me.
They just decided.
I guess the reason is, that I changed my mindset over the last year and that I learned that the only way to stay on track, is to follow your passion and your dreams and do things your own way. These two guys always talked about things they wanted to do, but they never did. And the shiny dream that I worked countless hours for in 2010, died.
In 2011 I learned to see every setback not as a slap in the face, but as an opportunity.
When I failed, I decided to become better.
When something went wrong, I took it as test feedback and not as a proof of my incompetence.
And I founded my own company. My rules, my believes and no compromises.
I guess the most important skill someone can achieve is strong resilience.
Just find your own passion, your very own way to work it out and always stand up one more time, than you fail.
I am a non-smoker for 8 years now and I failed to quit several times before. If I had failed to try quitting again, I might have smoked over 61320 cigarettes since that day.
That is 17520 €, that I never spent for smoking. It pays off to try again, when you fail with important things.
Don’t you think so?
best regards, Raimund
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
“I developed a way to transform frustration to motivation for myself.”
Yes. That is so important. The ability to face uncertainty and frustration and just move on will make all the difference.
Thanks for sharing your story. Best of luck with this new venture.
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Jay this is really great advice and I hope that people listen to what you have said. I have started 3 businesses personally from scratch, some with money and one with only $5000. I made 2 of them into multi million dollar businesses and I am 200,000 away from making the 3rd business hit 2 million pa.
Having the right formula is important but MORE important is the point you make about application of the formula or your daily habit. You need to be taking one step closer to all of your Key Performance Indicators every day (even if these are baby steps!)
I can tell your readers that this continual/perpetual forward momentum will grind down all barriers and give you real success that just becomes a habit. Your successes start small but get bigger and bigger, every day is a success, success is a daily habit. You literally cannot fail because you just dont know how to anymore.
Even without the perfect business plan you can achieve great success with this advice from Jay- IF YOU APPLY IT!!!
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Perpetual motion is key. You’re right. If you just keep moving forward, the net result is upwards success.
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Great post and I wholeheartedly agree that daily action is far more likely to build momentum and maintain motivation. The strength of your ‘Why’ is also critical ie Why do I want to achieve this goal.
Great way of managing your activity too, Damon. As a life balance/burnout coach I particularly like that approach! :-) Planning your activity into a calendar schedule will also help.
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Jay, I agree with your comments. With any new habit, I try to break it down to smaller task and try to be consistent with those little task. It prevents me from feeling overwhelmed and guilty.
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Great approach. Overwhelm is one of the top enemies of success. It’s natural to have it, but what you do with it makes all the difference.
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I agree with this consistency approach (is today the day? vs. every day is today, so do it!). Coincidentally, I was recently listening to a science podcast where the results of a study of runners was reported.
To sum up, it appeared that if a jogger was clocked at their peak performance where they “hit the wall” and couldn’t seem to go faster despite their experience and best efforts… the scientists in the study discovered a weird remedy.
They were able to give the athletes in their study 1% boost in performance vs. what they thought were their actual limits. How? By creating a computer program where the runner had an avatar who they were told was going to run at their peak speed and “can you top that?” Can you beat your own avatar runner?
What the study subjects didn’t know is that the avatar was actually running 1% faster than the truth, causing the human to outbeat it, thereby tricking their brain/body to outperform themselves just because they believed they had done it before.
2% didn’t work, and <1% had negligible effect. And letting the human runner in on the secret had zero or sometimes negative effect.
I have yet to fully absorb what this all means and why 1% appears to be the magic number. Multiply 1% X 365 days/year… you see where I'm going. I used to work out in my gym at NYU where they had rowing machines with computer-avatars and I surprised myself many a time how absorbed I was "trying to beat that avatar." Hmm. Weird.
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Fascinating!
I definitely find that it’s the incremental improvements that really add up to success.
Sometimes you make leaps forward, but those increments are the most important.
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Thank you. I really appreciate your consistant emails.
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Jay,
Thanks so much for the wonderful post! Love the analogy between exercising and building a business. Consistency being key to the success of one’s goals. I’m visualizing how I will take action, right after I get some sleep that is. :o)
Many blessings to you.
Nadine O.
Lifewaxed.com
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Jay, how simple, yet, how simply profound. I agree that scheduling is important, yet, the three day a week thing, just doesn’t have the sustainability that doing just a wee bit each day has. thanks for the shift in perspective.
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Thanks,
I am working on the habit formation process – check this – I set up my PS3, in front of my bike, in my office! Half the time I go into office to play PS3 and end up doing work. Crazy! Also, I do use the bike while I play PS3 – mind shutoff/competitve outlet + exercise = win-win-win. thanks Tim Feriss, and S&J!
Jeff
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
I love setting up systems and motivators like this to increase the chance of success.
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Great advice! I’ve found the book CHANGE ANYTHING by the authors of CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS to be absolutely a must read to put into action a successful habit. And a successful plan will automatically be consistent with seemingly no extra effort! Enjoy!
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Jay (Jason Van Orden) Reply:
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll take a look at it.
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Jay, I can completely relate to what you are talking about. In college I played football and was forced to work out and lift weights which is something I never enjoyed doing. After doing it consistently for so long I felt out of place if I missed even one day at the gym. This is something that I never translated to the business world. Now I am going to get in the habit of doing the things that I know will help me but I tend to skip. One example of this is commenting on blogs!
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Jason,
Very nice. And so, so, true!
I easily get sidetracked and off path if I am not careful. I also get too busy doing too many things, and that also makes me get off track.
I have been working on ways to get all my ideas and thoughts down in one place, and visiting them regularly, and prioritizing them, to help keep me stay more focused.
I like simple, and easy, so I will use this suggestions to at least do a little something daily.
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