A lot of the path to getting everything you want deals with if you can deal with the monotony of getting there. In English that means if you can stand the boredom of doing roughly the same things day in and day out there’s few things in this world that you won’t be able to achieve. The path to success is often paid with almost mind numbing boredrom.
Ask anyone who has become elite at a field whether it’s a copywriter, a fighter, a writer, a singer, or whatever else. They’ve gone through the drudgery of doing the thing they want to be good at day in and day out for years on end. There were times when they’d rather be doing anything else than what they were doing but stuck with it anyways.
Because that’s the price of success. And this applies to more than just craft or athletics endeavors. It applies to getting in shape, getting your finances in order, getting your life in order, and just about everything else that you can think of. If you want to know what the “secret” to success in any endeavor is, it’s consistency. Mind numbing consistency.
Passion & Motivation Have Limited Use
They can point you in the general right direction but that’s about it. It’s discipline and consistency that’ll take you where you need and want to go. Whenever you have a goal you want to accomplish, no matter what it is, it’s important to break it down into daily habits. Something we just talked about. What daily habits will take you to the completion of that goal?
For example say you want to be a professional copywriter? Then writing ads each and every day, writing copy every day, and working through a book or course on copywriting everyday are going to be things that you need to do. Each and every day including holidays, including Sundays, including on vacation and so on and so forth. I’m not saying you have to go hardcore during those general “off” times for most people. But you must do something.
In the gym I prefer to set people up with 6 day a week splits to 3 for a few reasons. But one of the biggest is the consistency that it builds and then on the off day they’re to do something pleasant like a walk or a swim. So they’re putting in the work each and every day. While I think this is more effective physically the real reason I do it is for the mental benefits it provides to the client.
They get their brain in the “groove” of working out much faster. So even if the results were exactly the same physically with 3 times a week versus 6 I’d still do 6 because they’d be much less likely to quit and generally we can stretch things out a bit more. So less intensity more frequency essentially. Another key to success. I think I’ll expand on that.
Frequency > Intensity
I know in boxing I’ve seen those guys come in once or twice a month on sparring days throw everything they have in the ring then not show up again until next sparring. Some of them were pretty good too. However none of them ever got better. It was interesting for me to compare my own progress with theirs week after week and how I was slowly closing the gap. It was interesting because these guys were way better boxers than me and that’s putting it lightly.
They could box circles around me, and often did. However month after month the gap slowly closed. After a year I was where they were at and then surpassed them. It was a surreal feeling at the time but makes perfect sense. Put in the work consistently and you’ll reap the reward. Goes back to that whole hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard cliche. Though there is some sense to it like most cliches.
If you’re going to focus on one thing for success focus on consistency and the frequency that goes with that. For example with the gym instead of doing an hour workout three times a week do a half hour workout six times a week. And so on and so forth. Don’t write 3,000 words three times a week do 700 every day. And so on and so forth. Focus on frequency over intensity for success.
That’s another key. One you’ll never want to be without.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.
-Charles Sledge
