For the longest time, I was incredibly impatient when it came to self-improvement. For stretches of two or three weeks, reading, studying, and writing was pretty much all that I could think about. And then once I felt like I wasn’t getting any results, I quickly returned to my old habits. I went through this cycle for a long time. There were some weeks where I would read 100 pages every day and be extremely productive. And then there would be other weeks where I could barely read a page or write a sentence.
Through some more experience, reading books (James Clear’s Atomic Habits helped me a lot), and learning, I realized that if I wanted to be productive and accomplish great things, I needed to be more consistent.
Let’s compare two people. Person a reads at least 20 pages every single day without fail. Person b reads 40 pages two days a week, but they are not very consistent.
Obviously, over time, person a is going to be able to read a lot more books than person b. Therefore, they will accumulate a lot more knowledge. I know that this seems like a very simple lesson, but it is something that took me a long time to truly understand.
Motivation isn’t important
I consider myself a very motivated person. And for a long time, I prided myself on the fact that I seemed to be much more motivated to learn than many of my peers. But at the time, I didn’t realize how little motivation mattered.
Motivation is like the lighter. You need it to start a fire. But without any fuel, you just have a flame. Discipline is the wood that allows you to actually have a fire. Motivated people start projects. Disciplined people finish projects.
This is why I would be extremely productive one week and then unable to get anything done the next. I was extremely motivated, but I had little discipline. In the above example, person a is disciplined. Person b is motivated. Which one would you rather be?
37 times better
In his wonderful book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about how important each day is. “If you can get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you are done. Conversely, if you get one percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero,” wrote Clear.
Most people don’t think about getting one percent better each day. They want to read a book from cover to cover in one day. They want to lose 15 pounds in one week. They want to start a successful YouTube channel in a month.
The truth is that nothing good or bad happens in one day. If you work out for one day, you are no closer to getting in better shape than you previously were. If a bodybuilder eats fast food one day, they are not suddenly going to be overweight.
This is the secret that many people fail to pick up on. If you want to be a writer, you have to make the decision that a writer would make more times than not. If you want to be in good shape, you have to make the decision that a healthy person would make more times than not. The goal isn’t to reach the finish line in one day. The goal is to get 1 percent better each day.
Show up everyday, especially when you don’t feel like it
No matter how much you enjoy something, there are going to be days where you really don’t feel like doing it. These are the painful days that a lot of people are not able to make it through. This is where most people quit. But you don’t have to be like most people. When your work becomes difficult, lean into it and recognize that you have made real progress by making it to this point. Realize that nothing worthwhile comes easily.
If you want to get one percent better each day, there are going to be times when doing work is the last thing that you want. But you still have to show up. You still have to get it done.
When things get difficult, we have a tendency to focus on how hard a task is going to be. Instead of just focusing on reading one page, we are overwhelmed by how massive our book is. Instead of focusing on writing each sentence, we can’t stop thinking about how we have to write 500 more. Not only is this not a recipe for productivity, but it is also not a recipe for happiness. This is why it is so important to focus on each day when doing anything in life. If you think too big, you will become overwhelmed. The formula for productivity and success is to focus on each day. It’s the formula for happiness, too.