Many sports team share the saying, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training”. This statement easily applies to all areas of life.

Most people know they need to train and practice, but why don’t most of us take it seriously?

Personally, to this day I think most training is boring. But unlike the past, I learned from experience that it’s 100% necessary. What changed?

In my opinion, to train well, I had to have a personally strong reason to do it. First, I created and rediscovered a few ambitious goals, the kind that realistically take years to achieve.

Then, I compared my present self to the person I’d need to be to achieve my goal(s). I made a full list about what kinds of things would I’d need to be able to do. This initially was 10+ items long.

Then, I took 2 or 3 items on the list at a time and set time commitments for action. Example, I will spend 30 minutes a day stretching for the next month. These time commitments are different than the goals or list needed to achieve the goal. The goal is a direction, but it’s repeated action that actually helps you grow. Instead of focusing on the objective itself, I committed to spending the time focused on practicing the action.

The first few days may be fine, but at some point, you will get discouraged. This why declaring your goals first is important. Every time I feel discouraged, I remember why I committed to the action. If you’ve already put in work, another option is to reflect on the distance you’ve already made. On a day/week level, it can be hard to see progress, but if you’ve been taking it seriously, the month/year timeframes will always reveal growth.

I’ve also seen a huge difference between repeating an action, and repeating an action while improving each time. Improving doesn’t have to be large scale. For me, it could be the perceived level of effort. Maybe I did the action well, but I didn’t feel like I was focused enough. The improvement for next practice would simply be to intentionally focus better than yesterday. Although simple, this is the difference between 1+1+1… to 1+1.01+1.02… On the small scale, not that much difference. Over a year, it’s massive.

Lastly, everyone has things going on in their life. I used to use these random hiccups as an excuse to derail important practices like studying, work, or sports. Because I’ve seen the huge impact of repeated action over a long timeframe, I realized missing even 1 day can largely affect my long term growth. Now, when inconveniences pop up, I keep my thinking flexible to find a way to keep the repeated action going, even if I have to adapt it to the situation. Habits form slowly and unravel quickly, so think carefully about missing even one commitment.

In life, it’s crucial to recognize the power of consistent training. Setting meaningful goals, committing to actions, and focusing on improvement can lead to long-term growth. Remember, even small, daily efforts add up over time, and flexibility is key to maintaining positive habits.

Routines: the Foundation for Success