One Day in a Row | The Magic of Simple Consistency

From January 1st 2013 until December 31st 2013, I worked out every – single – day. Whether -20 degrees outside or 100, I worked out. Whether the gym was closed or not, I worked out. Whether I ran a marathon the day before or I was going on vacation the next, I worked out. I even worked out the day my son was born.

Every day I woke up and by the time my head hit the pillow, I had completed another workout.

So, what’s the big secret? What’s the magic pill I ate each day? How much did someone bet against me completely this goal? I’m sorry to tell you there is no big secret, no magic pill, and no one there that bet I couldn’t complete this goal.

All I did was focus on keeping the one-day-in-a-row streak alive.

One-Upping Myself

I love accomplishing things few people either set out to do or actually accomplish when they do set out to do them. That completely sounds like I’m trying to one-up others all the time, but I’m actually trying to one up myself.

Comfort is the killer.

In late 2012, I knew traveling to different races wasn’t much of an option in 2013 seeing as my wife was about to birth our first child. I struggled to find something that would push myself for the entire year of 2013.

I wish I could say there was this big epiphany for deciding to workout everyday in 2013, but there wasn’t. I just said, “What the hell! I can do this anywhere so that’ll work.”

On December 31st, I started…and that’s when I realized the horrible predicament I just put myself in.

Do You Know How Many Days 365 Is

I don’t know why it didn’t hit me earlier, but I came to the stark realization at the start of this journey that 365 days is quite a lot.

If you had to count from 1 to 365, one at a time, I bet that you’d realize by 44 that 365 is a long ways from 1.

Now, I will admit, I love to workout and wish working out two times per day were my sole responsibility in life. I crave workouts. There’s a big difference between choosing to workout two or even three times in a day and being “forced” to do it with no rest days for an entire year.

The last thing I wanted and needed was to feel like this was a “forced” effort. That is unmanageable and would have driven me crazy.

What I had to do was take this whole journey one day at a time.

Committing to Consistency

Prior to the 365 day workout journey, I had been using this app called Commit by Nathan Barry. If you have followed me at all, you know I love this app.

I had been using this app for writing tasks and stretching. All the app does is keep a streak of consecutive days performing something. It’s super simple and beautifully designed. The Commit app was built for the 365 day journey.

From day 1 of 2013, I would open the app after my daily workout and tap the button stating I had worked out that day. Took 5 seconds.

Why did I do this? I had this overwhelming feeling before the journey had even started. There was one thing that I needed to complete this goal. I needed to refocus my approach.

My approach began by seeing how many more days I had left. By using the app, I focused on how many days in a row I had completed. 

Days left to do this shit versus days that I have kicked ass in a row?

Which do you think would help more people accomplish what might seem a never-ending goal? 

Approach Over Practice

There are a million ways to accomplish any goal. There are a million ways to become super ripped. There are a million ways to follow a healthy diet.

None of these ways matter if a positive approach is not applied.

Practice becomes monotonous. By seeing every day as another day of implementing the same shit over and over, the practice will be left behind and not appreciated.

However, if I apply the practice while focusing primarily on a positive approach (i.e. how many days have I kicked ass in a row), the likelihood of consistent success increases.

No one needs magic pill or a bunch of lifehacks. Simply taking it one day at a time and keeping that streak alive will do far more than trying to cheat the system will.

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