Tools

Visualization

Many different self help methods promote the benefits of visualization. No matter if you believe that you are attracting things to you, or simply that you are training your brain, the benefits are real…. visualize the future that you want. Kid is reading. You are fit, doing pull-ups, you are in you home, you are on vacation...

Set Sub-Goals Along the Way

It can be daunting to start on a year-long goal. If you want to go to the 200 times in the year, and it is currently January, you have a lot of ups and down ahead of you. Figure out what you average output needs to be, allotting for the fact that you will have some vacations and breakdowns. In the case of a 52 week year, I cut that down to 48 weeks/11 months.

200 visits / 11 months = 18.2 visits per month
200 visits / 48 weeks = 4.2 visits per week

Weekly/Monthly goals within a Primary Goal can shift as needed. You might crush it at the gym in May and hit lots of speed bumps in June. This provides the opportunity to set a specific goal for July, to help you get back on track.

In a year-long goal, you will have opportunity to adjust along the way. Maybe you do get 21 visits one month, to help compensate for a low month. Maybe you take a week off for an injury and need to put in a bit more effort during the next month.

As you break your goal down into smaller pieces, look at it from various angles - how many workouts per month? How many per week? As I reached the Galway point of 200 in 24, I knew I would likely miss as many as 4 full weeks over the final 6 months of the year. This was partly due to the specificity of my goal (I wanted to see 200 in my gym’s check-in app) and the fact that my wife would be having surgery that would take us out of town for 2 weeks. When I ran the calculation of workouts/month, I’d have to average 20 workouts per month to compensate for the lost time - but when I broke it down further, I found that 4.5 workouts per week, which was actually less than my current 5/week rate, would get me to the same goal.

Streaks as a Tool

While you Consistency Goal may not require you to take action every day, having a calendar or chart to keep track of your progress can be inspiring. 5 days is the sweet spot. Once you've hit 5 days in a row, you'll find that you desire to keep the streak going becomes a factor in your choice to continue. The longer the streak, the more likely you are to go out of your way to keep it going.

Another version of streaks could be Hitting Your Target Every Week. If you target is to check-in at the gym 4 times per week, and you've done that for 3 weeks in a row, you are more likely to go out of your way to keep the streak going for Week #4.

Run Up the Score

Get ahead when you can, especially in a long Timeline goals. If you’re feeling dialed-in and in the groove, go ahead and hit the gym a few extra time this month - because eventually the Chasm of Despair will strike and life will throw you some roadblocks - and you’ll be happy you padded your numbers a bit.

If you are doing a workout, let's say 100 pushups, 10 at a time. You can Run Up The Score by doing 1 extra pushup (11 total) each of the first few rounds. Then you do 10 pushups for a few rounds, and then you can do fewer in your last few rounds.

Round	Reps	Total
1	12 Pushups	12
2	12 Pushups	24
3	11 Pushups	35
4	11 Pushups	46
5	10 Pushups	56
6	10 Pushups	66
7	10 Pushups	76
8	10 Pushups	86
9	8 Pushups	94
10	6 Pushups	100

Enroll Other People

Tell your friends about your goal and ask them to help keep you accountable - check-in with a text every week? Meet for coffee to talk about how it's going?

Simply having someone else know about your goal can be enough motivation to keep you going during some plateaus. Knowing that special someone will, or might, eventually ask you "how is that goal going?" can encourage to keep working.

Stages of Progress

When you first embark on a new Consistency Goal, you will be staring at an empty calendar. Perhaps you've committed to brush your teeth every day, for 30 days in January. You will be entering the Concentration Phase of your progress. During the Concentration Phase, you will expend a large amount of energy, mental or otherwise, to complete your tasks with little result to show for your effort.

Concentration
During the Concentration Phase you will be excited about your new goal and feel motivated to build your consistency streak, but you will see very little progress for the effort that you are putting in. It is important to ride the wave of positive emotions to help build your streak as much as possible. The more you can build your streak before the next phase sets in, the more likely you are to ultimately see success with your goal.

Chasm of Despair \ This is Dumb Trap \ << Sometimes You Have to Grind it Out. THIS IS WHEN YOU WILL GRIND. YOU HAVE TO BE ILLING TO DO THE HARD & BORING JOB OF SHOWING UP EVERY DAY AND JUST DOING THE WORK THAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU. FOR SOME GOALS THIS WILL BE EASY, FOR OTHER GOALS IT WILL TRULY BE BORING AND SOMETIMES UNBEARABLE. THIS IS WHERE YOUR VICTORY IS WON. IF YOU DOUBT YOURSELF, IF YOU SAY "THIS IS DUMB", IF YOU GIVE UP BECAUSE IT BECAME SLIGHLY LESS INSPRIRING (go back to your Primary Goal Statement) THEN YOU WILL FAIL. IF YOU CAN SET ASIDE YOUR LIZARD BRAIN, WHICH WANTS YOU TO FEEL SAFE, YOU WILL SUCCEED >>

===THIS IS DUMB TRAP=== Very often, especially in creative endeavors - writing, arts, building a business, etc - you will encounter the This is Dumb Trap. You've been working on your project for a few days or weeks, you've made progress, but the initial excitement has begun to wane as you face the reality of Putting in The Work and eventually releasing your work to the public - will people like it? will they hate it? will they care?

"This is Dumb", you think.

There are two things to do in this moment:

Read your Why.
Stick to your How.

To get past these kind of mental blocks, you must realign yourself to your Why and fallback to simply executing your How. Push through, continue your consistent progress, and you will find yourself re-insipried.

This is not to say that every goal is worth following-through on, but when we do choose to stop pursuit of a goal, we want it to be a rational and thoughtful decision, rather than an emotional one.

The hardest part of the consistency cycle, The Chasm of Despair will appear as the excitement for your new goal begins to wane. You've been going to the gym for 2 or 3 weeks, you are feeling sore, and you are not seeing any physical results. You begin to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze.

Acceleration/Acceptance/Ossification
The Acceleration Phase is when you start to see some results - you catch yourself in the mirror, you get a date or two, you see the dollars start to add up - and you suddenly blast out of the Chasm of Despair and are reinvigorated with motivation.

Flow
After you have begun to see results - body changing, getting some dates, bank account increasing - your motivation will again increase and it will continue to become easier for you to maintain and accelerate your consistency. You will often need to battle with bad moods or lack of motivation, but you can always turn back to your Core Thesis and Simply Show Up to keep your streak going.

Put in the Working

While we will track our Primary Goals through consistency, it is important to understand that showing up is only part of the battle. To truly achieve your goals - Do 10 Pull-ups, Get a girlfriend, Save 0.1 bitcoin - you have to show up and bust your ass every time you show up. Sure, you could go to class every day but what is the point if you are going to goof off and not study or write the 10-page paper to get the top grade?

Dealing With Setbacks

You will, undoubtedly, encounter setbacks and roadblocks through the course of any meaningful Consistency Goal - injury, rejection, unexpected expenses - there are limitless things that could prevent you from making progress on your Consistency Goal.

For longer term goals (6-12 months), you have hopefully set a realistic number and have space to allow for life to happen.

Five months into the year, I hurt my shoulder and made the choice to take 1 week off from the gym. This gave me the space to heal and gave me a specific deadline. I did not have to wakeup every day as assess "Am I well enough to exercise?"

For shorter term goals and larger roadblocks, you may choose to adjust or even totally abandon the goal. If your goal is to "keep a tidy house" but you fall into poor health, you can simply choose to abandon the goal.

The time may come when more urgent matters in life take precedent (spelling?) over keeping a streak going or hitting your current weekly/monthly numbers within a larger goal. Keep your head about you and remember that while consistency provides the pathway to achieving your Primary Goal, consistency in itself is not the Primary Goal. If you have a streak of going to the gym every day, but an urgent matter arises within your family, you need to take care of your family and yourself. If you are better served by taking a day or a week off - then do that. Come back when you have a clear head and find a path to get back on track. The streak is not as important as your ability to get back on track after a setback.

Resetting

Establishing Consistency will help you achieve your Primary Goal, but Consistency is only a means to an end, and you should be willing to treat it as such. The goal is to be fit - not to be at the gym everyday. If you are able to get fit by going to the gym once per week, then why go every day?

With this in mind, be willing to consider resetting your Consistency Goals when things go awry. The longer the timeline, the higher chance you may need a reset. Life happens and you will hit hurdles. Do not be scared to reset the expectations.

Exhausted when you go to the gym 5 days/week? Reduce to 3 days/week.
Buying $500 of bitcoin/month is too aggressive? Try $100/month.
Approaching 10 women but not having good conversations? Aim for 3 conversations instead.

Whatever the Consistency Goal, remember that it is there to support your Primary Goal. It does not matter ~~how much money you save~~ as long as you end up ~~owning your home~~ in end the end.

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