DISRUPT #3 |The Art of Consistency


In the past couple of years I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into things that require me to have a high degree of consistency if I want to be successful in them.

I started taking soccer pretty seriously in December, 2021, until about May, 2022. I would go out to practice multiple times a day nearly every single day.

I started taking distance running pretty seriously in May 2022 and I still do to this present day trying to improve day in and day out.

  • I've run 2,410.45 miles this past year.
  • An average of 6.5 miles a day
  • 303 hours and 17 minutes spent running.

I started going deeper into my interests and building projects that leverage technology to make a beneficial impact on the world. I look to continue building projects on a consistent basis and learning when I can.

If you’re curious - Synthexia, Alexahub, Walmart Bluelabs Rec ​

I started this newsletter knowing very well that I’d need to remain consistent in learning about myself and documenting it if I wanted to grow this newsletter in order to provide something of value to you guys.

Alongside this newsletter I’m attempting to build a personal brand that’ll hopefully enable me to continue doing what I’m doing and provide something of value to the world alongside it.

Check out my twitter​

Throughout my ventures in these domains of interest, I’ve been able to learn more about the art of consistency.

Just like happiness is a skill, consistency is skill as well.

A much needed skill if you want to be successful in whatever you pursuit.

You might find bursts of energy and motivation to try something new. This is the temporary intensity that you get when you dive deep into something you’re curious about.

Once that burst of energy, once that burst of motivation is gone, if you want to continue and improve in your domain of interest, you need to focus on staying consistent.

1. Do it for yourself

You want to be the person who doesn’t have a need to brag about their accomplishments to others, but instead just purely does it for themselves.

Don’t aim to accomplish goals, don’t aim to set yourself on a path, if the only reason you do it is merely to brag about it and impress others.

People come and go. Opinions ebb and flow.

Doing something just to brag about it won’t lead you anywhere.

Doing something only to brag about it indicates that you don’t value the process. You only value the admiration of others.

Don’t rely on the admiration of others to stay consistent.

Rely on the admiration of yourself. Do it because you value it.

What you commit to should exemplify your intrinsic values. Combine what you value with something external that you’re interested in.

  • If you value creativity and you like coding, code a 3D website.
  • If you value knowledge and you like writing alongside art, learn all you can about art and educate others through an article

If you commit to something that is backed by what you value and what you genuinely enjoy doing, staying consistent won’t be difficult because

  1. You'll personally value it
  2. You’ve found something that you’ll find fulfillment in struggling for.

You won’t need the admiration of others to keep going. You'll keep going because you personally want to.

2. Just Start

“Just Start” is age-old advice. You hear it everywhere. You see it everywhere

On Nike ads - “Just do it”.

Steve Harvey - “Just start… why wait?”

Yet for some, it isn't as easy at it sounds.

Some difficulties can arise at times when you want to begin

  1. Uncertainty
  2. Lack of clarity
  3. Fear of failure

A feeling of uncertainty is just a feeling.

  • You might not know if you’ll succeed
  • You might not know if you’re on the right path
  • You might not know if you’re being realistic

But how will you ever know if you don’t try?

Oftentimes, once we begin, we know what route to take, which path go walk on. Our chance of success increases.

Thoughts beget thoughts, Awareness begets awareness.

The more you think about something, the more you’ll think about what lies around it.

The more aware you are of something, the more aware you are of what lies around it.

Immerse yourself into the unknown, be mindful of it, learn within it, and you’ll become aware of what you need to do.

You need courage. Uncertainty won’t go away until you’re certain. To be certain you need to start. So have some courage and go.

Embrace the feeling of uncertainty. It is an indicator of a great adventure to come.

Be one with it, not at war with it.

A lack of clarity is due to a lack of direction. It isn’t entirely clear on where you ultimately want to go or why you want to go there.

Design your ideal life based on what you value and what you want. Reverse engineer it. Break it down into smaller steps.

This will counteract psychic entropy, the phenomena of the mind to tending to disorder if it isn’t organized. You’ll be clear on what to do and you’ll be able to remain focused. You’ll be able to begin on a singular step.

That would the minimum that you would need to do in the moment. You’ll figure out what is next and achieve a higher level of clarity once you complete the first step.

If you really think about it, a fear of failure is redundant. Unnecessary and unrealistic.

Failure is necessary to learn. Without failure, how can we improve? What would we learn from? How would we iterate?

Instead of being apprehensive, seek experiences that challenge you. Experiences that’ll give you a chance to fail. If you fail, you can learn from your mistakes.

Failure is not the enemy, it is a friend. It gives us a means to keep going and learning in the infinite game of life.

And in reality, there is no failure in the game of life. Perceiving something as a failure is a choice you make. Look at your mistakes that led up to a “failure” and learn from them.

With this mindset, failure does not exist.

There’s no point in aiming to be consistent if you haven’t started yet. You can’t find a good system that’ll lead you to staying consistent if you don’t know how you best work. You start and then you adapt along the way by finding what works best for you. Obsess first, then optimize.

Just start

3. Don’t chase for success. Attract it.

Success is a byproduct of consistent action. - If someone is consistent at running, day in and day out, they will inevitably get faster. - If someone is consistent at writing, day in and day out, they will inevitably become a better writer.

You don’t chase success. You attract success by putting your focus on doing what you do. Focus on the process

Fulfillment is defined as being happy and satisfied with what you have. But the feeling of success is only temporary. So don’t chase it. You’ll never be satisfied. It’ll become more difficult to remain consistent.

If you want consistency, prioritize being satisfied with what you’re doing and the path you’re on. And you’ll find fulfillment in what you do.

4. Be process driven, not goal driven

The process of attaining your goals must be your driver for doing what you do. Success is only momentary. If that’s all you seek, then you’ll fall off.

You must

  • Plan in decades (goals)
  • Live in moments (process)

“You need the goal to get started but if the goal is what is fueling you, you won’t make it” - Naval Ravikant

The process is what must fuel you to keep going. You must be present the moment and enjoy working towards something great.

Don’t set the goal first, instead obsess first. Then optimize, create goals, and create a system

Here's an example

Say I want to start writing. I'd just start writing for fun.

Once I'd get in the routine of writing and you perhaps I want to get better at it, then I'd set goals to continue improving and keep the fun going.

Improving my writing for fun would be the game I play. I'd set goals to continue improving my writing. I'd continuously improve fueling my desire for improvement.

I'd keep writing because I'd enjoy it and you want to keep going. The goals I set keep me moving in an ideal direction.

Loving the process is what’ll lead to consistency. If you hate what you do, no matter the effort you put in, you'll eventually fall off.

4. Change your environment

Be intentional with how you design your environment. If your environment doesn’t complement your goals, it’ll be harder to remain consistent. - If you want to be healthy, it doesn't make sense to have unhealthy food in your fridge. - If you want to become a better writer, it doesn’t make sense to write in a room full of distractions.

There are areas in where this isn’t so obvious. If you want to take your growth to the next level you need to look deeper.

Look at the the information you consume. Be intentional with what you take in, in order to be intentional with what you put out.

1. Look at who you hang out with

You are the average of the 5 people you most hang out with. Find people and find communities who share similar interests, goals, and ambitions as yourself. You’ll be able to automatically learn from what they do.

2. Social Media

Follow the right people. Follow accounts that give you valuable information that are conducive to your goals. Whenever you find yourself on social media, at least you’ll be absorbing valuable information.

3. Podcasts, Books, and more

In your free time consume useful content that you can learn from. The issue with many is that they automatically associate learning with being boring. T his isn’t true.

Many are force-fed into learning things they don’t find relatively interesting. Or they feel pressured to learn things that are deemed “important” but aren't interesting to them.

But if you follow interests that exemplify what you value, learning no longer feels like a chore. It becomes something that you want. It becomes something that you like. It becomes play.

With the technology of today, there is no reason we can’t learn something new everyday.

4. Your physical space

Eliminate distractions from your workspace. Going even further, eliminate distractions from your house.

Prime your room

  • If you’re learning about space, put up 3d models of planets in your room.
  • If you’re learning about art, put up pictures of famous paintings in your room.

You'll be reminded of whatever you put up leading to more conscious thought directed towards that certain topic.

The more information you consume surrounding a specific topic, the more time you’ll spend thinking about it in your free time.

Thoughts beget Thoughts. Awareness begets Awareness.

The more you think about a certain thing, the more aware you become of it. You’ll put more conscious and subconscious thought into it.

  1. You’ll have a higher chance of coming up with great ideas surrounding your interest
  2. You’ll have an increased interest as you’ll gain knowledge that is interesting to you.
  3. You’ll begin making connections with the attained knowledge to your current knowledge creating new perspectives.

Everything becomes more seamless, you’ll become more interested and invested in what you do, you’ll stay more consistent.

Create a conducive system

You are in the present moment. Your goal is in the future. You can’t get to that future without taking proper action. You cannot take proper action if you don’t have a system that is conducive to that goal.

So you must create one.

  1. Write out your system for progression
  2. Stick to your system; Induce habit formation and identity change

What you do is who you are; Your habits form your identity.

If you stick to your plan on a consistent basis, you’ll induce habit formation which will lead to identity change thanks to the ability to rewire our brains (neuroplasticity).

Once you’ve built a habit, not doing it will feel weird because those habits have become a part of who we are.

  • If you routinely go on a run, not going on one will feel strange.
  • If you routinely go to the gym, not going to the gym will feel strange.
  • If you routinely sleep at a certain time, not doing so will feel strange.

You'll want to keep going.

What you value is part of your identity. Humans have a natural desire to thrive on a conceptual level, not only on a physical level. We thrive on our identity.

We would want to stay consistent because not doing so would divert from our values which would infringe on our identity.

Within the systems you create, you want to make it easy for yourself. Not difficult.

If you need to build the habit of consuming information to generate ideas for a project but you don’t have time to read throughout the day

  • Read right before you go to sleep.
  • Instead of reading listen to an audiobook on your walk home

If you need to build the habit of drinking water to stay hydrated for exercise

  • Keep a waterbottle at your desk

If you need to build a habit of journaling to self reflect on your progress but you don’t like to handwrite

  • Type instead.
  • Use a voice recorder.

The proper system will lead to increased consistency. It’ll be more seamless reducing any friction between you and your goals.

Avoid x0 Multipliers

Avoid the bad to preserve the good. Don’t take unnecessary risks that will yield no reward. Don’t take necessary risks that can potentially leave you with nothing in the end.

1,000,000 X 0 = 0

In my case, I’m a runner. If I overtrain and get injured, I’ll inevitably miss valuable time training. I’d actually see a decrease in overall fitness. I don’t want that.

This might seem easy, but it’s easier said than done. With high ambition comes high resilience. With high resilience and high ambition comes the ability to give it your all until you succeed. This can lead to irrational stubbornness if one isn't careful.

You must not fall into x0 multipliers out of stubborness. You’ll dive into a sunk cost fallacy. It’s a phenomenon in which a person is reluctant to abandon the current course of action because of their stubbornness to succeed even when it is entirely clear that abandonment would be beneficial. You don’t want that.

To make it easier we need clarity. Keep your initial vision in mind. Why are you doing this. Follow that vision.

If we avoid x0 multipliers our ability to stay consistent will remain there. You just have to continue taking action

Take care of the basics first; Optimize after.

In order to stay consistent, you must not overcomplicate things.

  • If you want to get fit, don’t start with complicated workouts, just start with running a mile. Build from there.
  • If you want to be healthier, don’t start with complicated diets, just take care of the basics. Water, Vegetables, Protein. Build from there.

If you overcomplicate things and try to optimize from the start, you’ll be overwhelmed. You might not even make progress.

How can you know what to optimize if you haven’t started yet? You have no experience.

Keeping it simple makes it easier for you to stay consistent. Once you’re consistent then you optimize improving what you can already do.

“Impatience with actions, patience with results.” - Naval Ravikant

You might want results quick. I get it. I’ve been there. Remember, building anything worthwhile will take time. Rome was not built in a day. Heck, it even burnt down before it reached it’s peak potential.

It takes time. Be patient. But you must act. Don’t be complacent. Focus on the process and results will inevitably come. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the results that you will get eventually. Just focus on getting there. Act when you can.

See you next week guys. If you wanna chat message me on twitter !


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DISRUPT

Philosophy. Mentality. Ideas on Life. All about unlocking your inner potential. From the desk of an athlete, builder, and philosopher. Every Monday. 7 AM EST.

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