The key to your success is solely reliant on how consistent you are. Consistency is the Key. This can apply to just about anything but I own and operate a gym so I see this most frequently in health and fitness. Motivation can be extremely helpful with getting started towards your fitness goals but consistency is the key to reaching your goals. This should be obvious but the more consistently you do something the better you get at it. The better you get at it the easier it is to do. Consistency is essentially practice and vice versa.

For whatever reason we don’t always see these things being almost the same thing. A basketball player isn’t going to get better at making free throws without actually practicing free throws. The more consistent they are with practicing free throws the better they should become. 

Exercise and nutrition work the exact same way. If you only focus on your exercise and nutrition once a month your results aren’t going to be very good. They will be better than someone who focuses on it once a year. The problem is most people have an all or nothing mentality with health and fitness. The “I need to do it all right now” thought process. Or the “I need to be perfect every single day” thought process. You probably see the flaw in this plan. Humans are not perfect nor were we ever meant to be perfect.

The question you should be asking yourself is why are you holding yourself to such a high standard when you probably don’t hold yourself to that high of a standard for anything else. Okay sure, there are probably things you hold yourself to a high standard for but not for 365 days a year. I hold myself to a really high standard when I train people but I also know I am not perfect. An exercise I thought might help get a person stronger could be causing an imbalance.

There is one rule I teach all of my clients. It’s the 80/20 rule. This basically states that you want to be consistent 80% of the time with something that you are doing. This allows you to fail 20% of the time. So for instance this basically means you need to be consistent with what you are looking to achieve for 292 days of the year. That might sound like a lot but this allows you to have 72 bad days a year. 72 times is a lot. It’s almost once every 6 days. The best part about following this is that most people don’t have 72 bad days a year.

Here is the thing about this even if you had 72 bad days in the year you were still consistent for 292 days. I used the example of days in a year but it can be broken down into any increment of time. You can do weeks in the year. Meals per day. Find what works best for you and be consistent 80% of the time.

Let’s set some tangible goals. You have to practice being consistent just like you have to be consistent with practicing. Start small. If you aren’t going to the gym at all, start with one time a week. Be consistent making it once a week. That means you would only need to go to the gym 42 times in the year to be 80% consistent. Once you have no problem making it to the gym once a week try a second day but stay consistent with your one day. This is the process of getting to the gym consistently. You do this till you are consistently hitting the gym twice a week 80% of the time. You continue to do this till you get to your desired amount of days in the gym.

Shoot for that 80% consistency. Remember, you aren’t always going to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good. You are trying to be good, not perfect. With that being said, don’t let bad ruin good. If you have a bad day, it’s just one day. One day isn’t going to make or break your progress. Get back on track with that consistency as soon as possible. Remember, consistency is the key to success.

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