Consistency doesn't guarantee success—but without it, success is impossible. Without commitment, you’ll never start. Without consistency, you’ll never finish.
James Clear puts it best:
"A habit missed once is a mistake. A habit missed twice is the start of a new habit. Never miss two days in a row."
I’m realizing I have to show up for myself every single day if I want to shape my life into what I know it can become.
Consistency is rarer than talent or enthusiasm. Every January 1st, gyms fill with hopeful people high on resolutions. Some have talent. All have enthusiasm. Yet few remain consistent.
Daily Rhythm
The path to success lies in the daily rhythm:
Monday: get better.
Tuesday: get better.
Wednesday: get better.
Not just for a week or a month—but for three, five, even ten years. This sustained effort is the real path.
Showing Up
The most powerful advice? 85 to 90% of life is just showing up. If you show up, something might happen. If you don’t, nothing will.
Work consistently without immediate results. Each day, you improve slightly. From the outside, seemingly overnight, you experience a breakthrough. But the truth is, it's never overnight. Real transformation occurs in the unseen grind—doing the right thing every day, especially when no one is watching.
That is where iron is forged.
Intensity vs. Consistency
You go to the gym after one day, look in the mirror—no change. Next day, still no change. Many quit. But if you trust the process and persist, eventually you will see results. The same applies to relationships and work. It’s not big gestures that matter; it’s consistently showing up.
Intensity burns hot but fades quickly. Consistency keeps the flame alive.
Choosing Greatness
The hardest part of life is discovering who you are and what you’re meant to do. Once you know, wake up each day and work towards it. If you do this, failure becomes impossible.
Forget waiting for “someday.” Make today Day One. Choose greatness today. Begin now. Decide.
Live on purpose—not based on where you’ve been, but where you’re going. There’s a calling on your life—answer it.
Start Moving
Lost in the woods? Start walking. Movement brings perspective. Even if you walk in the wrong direction, you’ll figure that out and adjust. Stillness leads nowhere. Progress requires motion.
Don’t wait until you feel ready. Just start. Starting is the perfect condition.
Planning isn't doing. Talking isn't doing. Tweeting isn't doing. Even reading this isn't doing. Only doing is doing.
Eliminate Hesitation
The longest moment in the world is the hesitation between thought and action. One second of hesitation can stretch into eternity.
Take Action. You’ve had enough rest.
If you say you want change, yet act against it, frustration follows. Change requires action.
The Math of Success
One day at the gym makes no difference. Two days, no visible results. but one hundred days? You're nearly unrecognizable.
This holds true for writing, music, business, relationships. The math is straightforward:
Doing nothing × 100 = 0.
Doing something × 100 = significant progress.
Worthwhile things take time—100 days, 500 days, sometimes 5,000 days.
Integrity through Self Discipline
Set a schedule: train, sleep, wake up—stick to it. Each broken promise chips away at your strength; each kept promise builds it back.
Be impatient with your effort (input) and patient with the results (output). You control the planting and tending, before the harvest. Success follows nature’s law: first cause, then effect.
Stack one good day after another—that's momentum.
Want more results? Do it more consistently.
Uphill Climb
Everything worthwhile is uphill. No one accidentally reaches the mountain’s peak. Everyone who succeeds knows exactly how they climbed.
There are countless days I don't feel like doing anything, yet I still show up. That's what separates good from great. Greatness moves forward regardless of feelings.
Overcome Your Excuses
Don’t allow yourself to rationalize quitting, don’t generate excuses, like a high-priced defense attorney for your weaknesses. Don’t listen—just keep moving.
Take Action.
Transcript:
Consistency doesn't guarantee that you'll be successful, but not being consistent will guarantee that you won't reach success. Without commitment, you'll never start—but without consistency, you'll never finish.
This is my favorite rule from James Clear: "A habit missed once is a mistake. A habit missed twice is the start of a new habit. Never miss two days in a row."
I'm realizing that I have to daily show up for myself if I want my life to be what I want it to be. Consistency is even rarer than talent or enthusiasm. Every January 1st, the gym doors swing open and everyone’s keen to do something. They’ve got these New Year's resolutions. They're all enthusiastic. Some of them are even talented. But how many of them end up being consistent long term?
The consistency of work: Monday—get better. Tuesday—get better. Wednesday—get better. And you do that over a period of time. Not one month or two. I mean three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years. Then you can get to where you want to go.
Right now, the biggest advice that anybody could give you: 85 to 90% of life is just showing up. Show up. If you show up, there's a chance something could happen.
Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. No results. But I'm a little bit better. Work. Work. Work. Work. Work. No results. I'm a little bit better. Work. Work. Work. Boom—just got paid. It looks like overnight success. "Oh, it happened in a year!" No bro. It didn’t. Everyone talks about the destination, but very few people talk about the journey.
That's where the iron is forged—in the monotony of doing the right thing day in and day out. Your part of the deal is to keep showing up for yourself. To stick around and see what happens when you really go all in. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Just hold up your end of the bargain and watch how life turns in your favor.
If you go to the gym and you work out and then come back and look in the mirror—you’ll see nothing. The next day? Same. Clearly, there are no results, so you assume it's not effective. So you quit.
But if you fundamentally believe this is the right course of action and you stick with it, like in a relationship—you bought her flowers, wished her happy birthday—and she doesn’t love you. Clearly, you should give up? No. That’s not what happens.
If you believe there’s something there, you commit. You serve. You screw up sometimes—you eat chocolate cake, you skip a day or two. But if you’re consistent, I don’t know what day, but I know you’ll start getting into shape. Same with relationships.
It’s not about intensity. It’s about consistency.
The hardest thing in life is figuring out who you are and what you want to do for the rest of your life. Once you figure that out, wake up every day and work toward it. It’s impossible to fail if you do that.
It’s not about waiting until the end. One day won’t arrive. Make today Day One. Today is the day I decide to be great. To go after my goals, my dreams. That’s the mindset.
Live on purpose—not off your resume of where you’ve been, but on the direction of where you’re going. There’s a call on you—it’s time to answer it.
If you’re in the woods and don’t know where to go—start walking. Perspective changes through movement. Worst case? You find out you walked in the wrong direction. Good. Now walk the other way. But don’t stand still. Don’t die standing still.
A productivity hack: Instead of waiting to get in the mood to work, just start working. Confront the work. Starting is the perfect condition.
Preparing to do the thing isn’t doing the thing. Scheduling the thing, talking about the thing, making a to-do list for the thing, tweeting about doing the thing—none of that is the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing—is doing the thing.
The longest time in the world is the hesitation between thought and action. One second of hesitation can become an eternity. That moment you hesitate—you lose the moment.
So don’t take that chance. Take action. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. You’ve had enough damn rest. Go take action.
You say: I want to lose weight. Then you eat at night and hate yourself the next morning. What do you want? Something’s gotta change.
You won’t change your life unless you change something.
One day in the gym? Imperceptible. Two days? Still no change. 100 days? You’re almost a new person. One day of guitar? One chord. 100 days? You can play almost anything. One hour of writing? Junky little essay. 100 hours? You’ve got a book.
Letting it slip becomes 0 × 100 = 0. Doing anything adds up. Doing nothing = nothing.
Do what you’re supposed to do. Don’t expect incredible results in 1 or 2 or 10 days. Worthwhile things take 100, 500, maybe 5,000 days.
Set a time to train. Train at that time. Go to sleep. Wake up. Don’t tell yourself you’ll do it and then not do it.
Every little defeat eats at your mental strength. They stack. So does momentum.
Be impatient about input, not output. You can’t control the outcome. You can control the planting. Money and success are lagging indicators. Let nature work. Focus on what you can do.
One good day: you eat clean, drink water, run, lift, rest well. Stack good days. That’s what momentum is. You want better shape, more money, a better relationship, a promotion? Change what you do.
Everything worthwhile is uphill. You don’t get there accidentally. No one says, “I have no idea how I got to the top of this mountain.”
It takes effort. Energy. Time. Intentionality.
There were 100 days I didn’t want to do anything. But I got up anyway. That’s what separates the good from the great. Greats do it even when they don’t want to.
You rationalize, justify, make excuses like a high-paid defense attorney trying to win the case for weakness.
Don’t listen. Just do the work.
Put space between how you feel and what you do. That’s consistency. Not feeling it? Still show up. That’s how your outcomes stabilize.
One foot in front of the other. Storms pass. Be ready when they do. Fight the war within yourself. Take responsibility. Grow through discomfort. That’s how you get strong.
Don’t live by your feelings. Do the things that don’t come easy. Get up. Do it anyway.
Can you get up again tomorrow? And again the next day? Keep going.
How long can you maintain a positive attitude?
When nobody’s looking—that’s when it counts. Those early mornings, the extra reps, the daily grind—that is what wins.
Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. That’s the name of the game.
Keep going. Your competition won’t. They’ll fall off. But you won’t.
Most people are lazy. Looking for shortcuts. But there are none.
Do it every day. That’s how you become what you believe in.
People won’t see the struggle. They’ll see the victory.
They’ll wish they were you when your hand is raised.
But they didn’t get up in the cold. They didn’t train in the rain.
They didn’t do the thing.
You did.
And that’s what makes you a champion.