The difference between average and greatness can be summarised by two words.

Discipline.

Consistency.

As simple as these two things are, they’re often the two experiences and concepts that human beings find notoriously difficult to sustain. For some reason, it feels as though discipline and consistency are the otherwise unattainable states of the top 1% in society. They are states and practices that have generated communities, businesses and whole ecosystems to coax out these hard behaviours out of us.

Disciplines are a set of rules or frameworks you abide by, in order to produce specific results. Consistency is the repetition of actions or behaviours, in order to move towards your results, and/or compound them.

Therefore, in order to achieve some of the most worthwhile life goals, it requires some kind of discipline. (rules and frameworks) and consistency (repetition of the practices of these rules and frameworks).

Being a disciplined and consistent person has its benefits. It allows you to exercise agency and self control, to live out a life you have consciously crafted, and obtain goals that often very few people are often able to achieve. The great thing about discipline and consistency? Whilst these are hard things to cultivate, they aren’t innate. They can be developed - not like natural talents or intrinsic gifts. That means you can work towards being the best, which ought to strike some hope in your soul that you can become the 1%.

As we wind down this year, it’s so tempting to start thinking about all of your failures. We often chalk it up to our ‘lack of discipline and consistency’, thinking that we must find new particularly painful ways that we can become who we want to be in life.

What if I told you it doesn’t have to be this way? What if I told you that discipline and consistency isn’t about how hard you work, but about making it easy to work hard?

You need to fundamentally reframe your relationship with discipline and consistency. It’s not about finding new ways to punish yourself to be better, but about investing yourself in as an efficient ways as possible. That’s what moved the needle for me, and that’s how I was able to:

  • Lose over 50 lbs of my body weight and maintain over the past 4 years

  • Access a number of scholarships, funding and paid for opportunities worth thousands of pounds

  • Organically scale and grow communities in the thousands, and hundreds of thousands

  • Work with some of the biggest global brands and organisations

  • Graduate from two of the top schools in the world with first class degrees

  • Land some of my dream roles and positions

  • Cultivate meaningful and fulfilling relationships

  • Move into my dream apartment with my best friend

Have I got everything figured out? No - I’m still learning and growing. But two of the most crucial elements to my success and contentment so far are down to two words:

Discipline.

Consistency.

Here’s how you can practically implement the mindset and frameworks, to get big results in your 2023.

Key Summary (TL/DR):

  • Aiming for 1% every day

  • Anticipating the inevitability of failure

  • Celebrating small wins

  • Embracing accountability

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    I’m a big believer that we are the sum of the things we do often. We are consistent both intentionally and unintentionally - there are certain things we do that have become habitual. For example, going to the gym in the morning is now second nature for me.

    When we set our lofty goals, we can often over-index on the ‘loftiness’ of the goal. We have that squarely in mind of what we’d like to achieve after an extended period of time, when consistency is built up by focusing on the individual 1% each day. When implementing a new workout routine, don’t focus on getting huge numbers straight away - focus on getting the movements right each time, and gradually increase difficulty over the course of several weeks. When trying to be more productive, focus on maximising the hour you have when you have it, and stop focusing on being maximally productive all the time, over the course of the whole day.

    Focus on moving the needle in small amounts of time, with small actions, consistently.

    You can check out my full article on habit stacking and implementation here, to help you do this.

    This is not to put a dampener on your journey. It’s more about being realistic - life happens. It might be a financial setback, falling ill, dealing with grief…as we’ve seen over the course this year, some great and not-so-great surprises can sometimes litter the way of greatness.

    One of my favourite sayings? If it ain’t something, it’s something.

    Anticipating that things will knock you off course makes it easier to accept that you’re human, and being disciplined and consistent isn’t about getting 100% all the time, but getting 100% as much as you can. You won’t always be consistent with your diet - celebrations will come, or perhaps you may get sick, or perhaps you’re planning on going on holiday. You won’t always make residual income at a consistent rate - dry seasons crop up amidst a recession. You won’t always be the most emotionally intelligent person - sometimes grief, pain or trauma can cause regression.

    That’s okay. It’s inevitable - don’t fight it, just prepare to give yourself time, and construct a plan before you get stuck in a rut. In the event you may have to take a break from being disciplined or consistency, re-introducing discipline and rebuilding yourself over the course of that time can be figured out before it happens.

    It is necessary to celebrate your progress. Stop waiting until you’ve achieved the big numbers - getting into the habit of celebrating smaller wins can really prime you for long term success.

    Stop waiting until you’ve made £10000 - celebrating winning that £100 contract! Stop waiting until you’ve had a month of consistently eating whole foods - celebrate when you’ve managed to do it for 3 days! Stop waiting until you’ve managed to land your dream job - celebrate the fact that you’ve been consistent in sending out applications this week.

    When you cultivate a culture of celebrating the small wins, your happiness won’t be contingent on the big win - you will have built your self-esteem, rewarded yourself for your consistency, and positively programmed your behaviour.

    This doesn’t need to be a solo show. Sometimes, being disciplined and consistent can seem so daunting, because we’re relying on our personal willower. Whilst there is definitely an element of this, I’ve found having different levels of accountability beyond my own self-evaluation is also necessary. I have accountability from friends, acquaintances, mentors and communities in different capacities. I am such a firm believer in the importance of building structures of accountability around myself to support achieving my goals.

    I share my goals with relevant people. Overall vision? I share with my best friends. Fitness goals? I share with my brother, a fitness fanatic. Financial goals? I share with my mentor, a financial adviser and whizz at personal finance. My faith goals? I share with my pastor.

    Discipline and consistency isn’t only about you - it’s also about those you allow to pour into you.

    —

    That’s all from me this week folks. As ever, if you found this useful, feel free to share Optimise Me with a friend.

    Let’s all become better humans.

    -RK

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