Are you ready for the secret?
The magic bullet for success in fitness, finances, career, love, etc?
It doesn’t exist.
Or at least not how you want it to.
Sorry to disappoint, but absolutely unglamorous consistent effort is the only thing that is going to get you where you want to be.
We all want to have already reached our goals, but few want to put in the consistent work to get there.
Why?
Because we want big breakthroughs. Epiphanies. Peak moments.
But those moments only come through long slogs across seemingly endless plateaus.
Or, they never come, because the incline the whole way was so slight, we arrive at our goal never realizing that we’d come so far.
To put it another way, one book I read talked about money and wealth.
If a man has a penny, is he rich?
Okay, how about one more penny?
If we keep giving the man penny after penny, at what point does he “become wealthy?”
Likewise, if we practice every day, at what point do we:
Become a good artist?
Speak Italian fluently?
Play the guitar well?
The distinction between a beginner and a master is real. And yet it has no dividing line, no threshold to demarcate the point where one progresses.
If you’ve ever known a child who you didn’t see for a while, you know the experience. When you are around someone day after day, you’ll never notice the tiny changes that happen as a child grows into an adult. But if you meet a friend’s child again after a few years, or go to a family reunion only to discover that your little cousin now towers over you, the changes are much more apparent.
These types of changes happen on their own. Without intervention. Most positive changes need our help.
The way to effect positive change is to create a habit that persists and let go of the need to see results.
Because the results are often so subtle that they will not be apparent for a very long time.
And sometimes, interim results are inconsistent—the skill isn’t solid. We go forward, and we regress, again and again. So to try to rely on results as continued motivation is foolish.
The only control we have is over our own consistency of action.
Bullets are fast. Everyone wants something that will quickly and effortlessly make the change they want to see.
The only real magic bullet is consistent effort over time.
And that thing moves in slllooooooooowwwwwww moooooooo….
Thanks for reading!
Have you found a magic bullet to results? Want to inspire the rest of us with an anecdote about your journey to mastery? Please share it in the comments below!