I’m about to tell you something that you won’t believe – something that you will make you think I have lost it. You will shake your head and disagree, and yet if you read to the end, you may just realize I’m right: success isn’t about what you do.
A Horrible Set of Reps
The other day I was working out with my girlfriend Cristi and she was doing the worst set of reps you ever saw. She was doing a simple bicep curl with dumbbells and was struggling with each rep.
She needed a total of six, but by two she really didn’t have much left. By four her form was really off. By five she was almost cheating, and as she pressed up six, she could have received an award for the most fictitious rep ever created.
Despite all of this, she persisted. Why? Because success isn’t about what you do. It’s about something else.
The Truth about Success
As Cristi was completing her fifth curl, her form askew and giving her unfair leverage, she knew how off she was. “My form is terrible” she said.
“It doesn’t matter,” I replied.
“You’re right.” She responded. Because she knew what I knew: that success isn’t about what you do.
Don’t get me wrong. You don’t want to be working out in a way that will be harmful to you. You don’t want to over lift or put strain on your body with the way you perform.
But that wasn’t Cristi’s problem. She was just struggling this day, not overextending. And it wasn’t that her form was dangerous and prone to injury. It’s that it was making it easier than it should be, almost as if she was getting an assist.
Success Isn’t About What You Do
The thing is that some days you just are tired or sore or don’t have the energy, but you have to keep going. You have to stay consistent. You have to stick with the program. You have to do the work.
Some people would avoid the work, or do double the next day, or come up with excuses. But that’s because they don’t realize that success isn’t about what you do, it’s about the habit. It’s about developing the consistency to do it every time. After all, forward is better than perfect,
It doesn’t matter if every so often what you do is just god awful, because if you do it everyday one god awful day out of 365 just doesn’t matter a hill of beans. What matters is the fact that you did it 365 times. What matters is the habit.
If you want to be successful, focus on building strong habits. Start easy. Take it slow. Success isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Take your time. Enjoy the things you are doing. Make success easy to get into and easy to stick with.
Over time these will simply become a part of your life and as you improve and increase, it will just be normal. Then when you have days that are underwhelming, it just won’t matter. Because success isn’t about what you do, it’s about the habit of consistently doing.
