On Consistency: What you expect from yourself day in, day out

In this world, everyone is capable of producing effort. It’s the one thing that is 100% under our own control at all times. Results are different though, because depending on your level of skill you may or may not be achieving a certain goal. Effort won’t always translate into a desirable result, as there are other things that can affect it or be affected by it.

So whether you’re where you wish to be from a results perspective or not is somewhat irrelevant, as the process is more important than the outcome. Always.

Most people when applying effort, they do so for too specific a motive and that’s damaging. Eric Thomas calls them “goal grinders”, and what he means is that people get a particular goal in mind like “losing weight”, “get a degree” and they apply the effort required to meet that goal (better or worse), but as soon as they get there they stop applying this effort and go back to cruise mode where effort is inconsistent, unguided and expectation for results should be minimal.

Then you have the “life grinders”. People who love the grind for the grind itself. People that trust the process and know it’s that consistency of effort that puts them in a league of their own. Homeostasis in regards to human achievement is bullshit. You’re either moving forward and getting better, or you’re moving backwards and losing skills and proficiency. This I believe.

These are the stars, the geniuses, the high achievers we get to know in each field of expertise. And for the most, we do these life grinders such a disservice. We assume they’re talented because of the results we see them perform, but have no appreciation for the level of consistency they put in, day in and day out, that allows them to perform at such high levels. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest of all times, put it best in his “I’m sorry” speech everyone should hear.

This is not talent, and even if talent was to be confirmed as the main source of advantage, it’s insulting to attribute results to talent when they wake up every morning and work on their craft, when the competition stays in bed until 8am and you’re waking up at 5am and putting in the work whilst everyone else is asleep, when you say out of your mouth where you want to be in 10 years time and you wake up every morning and work on it.

Goal grinding is a good approach for transient goals. For things you’d like to have or be or do. But part of living the process is knowing that effort must be consistent if it is to be ingrained in who you are, and that comes with time and experience. There are no substitutes.

Life grinding is where you want to be, because when you physically can’t exist without producing effort, the universe conspires with you. When consistently working on something is part of your life, when you get to the point where you feel useless if you’re not actively learning and improving on a daily basis, year after year, results are inevitable. When all this falls in place, you get to claim you’re obsessed with improvement and when that happens, you become so proficient that NO ONE can come into your field of expertise and dominate you.

Greatness becomes only a matter of time, and greatness can’t be rushed. Always aim to be the hardest worker in the room, Rafael, and know that most people choose the pain of regret (getting to end of life unhappy with what they’ve done and achieved) over the pain of discipline, which is the embodiment of consistent effort and is the one common trait among all the greats that came before us.