By Amy Rigby
If we ask some of the greatest athletes of all times what’s the secret for their success, most of them would say: consistency.
Athlete or not, what makes famous, successful, people different from your and me? Is it a natural skill? Access to resources? Sheer luck? Of course, all these might be there, but even if genetics, the environment you grew in or chance are on your favor, nobody can have consistent success without the continuous practice and development of behaviors that are aligned with your goal. The good news is consistency can be controlled.
Why should you be consistent? Your brain loves constant and predictable things.
Your brain was developed to help you survive. To reach that goal it needs to find ways to reduce uncertainty. Uncertainty involves risk, and risk brings danger, putting your brain on a “flee or flight” mode at the slightest sign of threat. For this reason, your brain finds comfort in consistency, which reduces the uncertainty by predictability.
Studies show that our brain loves when things are steady and predictable, so why is that it is so hard to follow a schedule of content creation, go out for a run every morning or be in the same job every single day? Well, because, in a weird turn of events of neurological connections, our brain also loves new and easy things!
Obstacles to consistency – your brain also loves novelty and comfort
To complicate things a little bit, our brain also loves rewards and associates novelty as a reward. There is a thrill when we do something new and unexpected, that is not negative of course, and when this happens our brain gets filled with dopamine which is a well-being neurotransmitter, that encourages it to explore in search of that reward. The anticipation of that reward is usually what guides our decisions when we establish a goal for the first time. A study has also found that when we decide to pursue a goal, the focus is on that attractive reward and not the effort involved, but as soon as we start performing the natural behaviors needed to reach that goal, the focus turns to the effort and we lose sight of the reward. The excitement of the reward is still there (whatever the goal) but you won’t see the reward for weeks, sometimes even months, because it needs a lot of effort to reach it, so the brain goes back to survival mode and looks for ways to save energy. So, if you have the choice to sleep in instead of waking up early to work out, what do you think your brain will sabotage you into?
In a nutshell, while your brain finds comfort in predictability, it also has fun with new, easy-rewarding things – and frequently these characteristics conflict with the necessary behaviors to be productive.
What can you do to overcome this conflict of interests? How do you become consistent?
1. Implementation intentions
When your goals are too vague it’s because there is no clarity about what you wish and your brain is left with a lot of decisions to make: “what to do”, when to do it”, “why”, and when your brain finds out the answers it’ll already be exhausted and nothing will be more tempting than eating popcorn and watch Netflix, after all that reward for your brain is long due.
The best way to approach this is to write an implementation intention which will specify the day, time and place to achieve the desired behavior. For example, “On Mondays at 5:30 pm I will work for half an hour on articles on my kitchen table.” In a simple statement you have told your brain when, how and what to do, avoiding unnecessary decisions. This increases the probability of moving forward with your goal.
2. Reduce friction
To survive your brain needs to save energy, so if your new habit requires extra energy, it’s less likely you will keep it. The solution is to reduce friction whenever possible, meaning get things out of the way. If things are not easy to access or organized, the effort to reach them will be bigger and whenever you need to reach your tools, whether they’re a pen, a book or the treadmill, you will need extra effort to make that happen. So put things in obvious, easy to access places where you can reach everything you need, arrange things in a way that you’ll be automatically reminded of what to do next – use your phone notifications, alarms or whatever works for you to be on top of schedules and deadlines without spending too much energy.
3. Intermediate goals
Results are important but depending on your goal they can be too far ahead and your brain doesn’t have those immediate rewards it do desperately needs. So, if your goal is to “be promoted” that’ll take time and dedication and it’s still out of your control because someone will have to promote you. The best way is to establish intermediate goals that focus on the learning process of reaching a big goal up ahead. So, instead “being promoted” establish a goal to graduate for a people management course, start your MBA, work on your leadership skills, which will make your brain focus on the victories along the way until you get to be promoted. This way your brain will get the dopamine it needs to keep focused on the things you can control.
4. Discipline
To depend only on your will strength is nothing more than being naïve. Disciplined people, on the other hand, manage to structure their lives in a way they don’t depend on will strength and do not waste time on tempting situations. Thus, make a commitment that actually prevents you to even get close to temptation. Some people have a lock on their fridge so they don’t eat past a certain time. That is called the Ulysses’ pact – instead of trusting your will strength you put yourself in positions you can’t escape from but that will help you reach you goals.
5. Be on top of your emotions
Athletes know that to be excellent consistency is of utmost importance but that boredom, frustration and tiredness are also inevitable after some time. To do the same thing for a long time is the antitheses of our brain looking for those small, easy-to-get, immediate rewards, although that’s something crucial for success, so take a break when you need for your brain to be able to relax or give it the dose of dopamine it craves by adding variety to your routine. This doesn’t mean you won’t continue doing the same thing but you can vary the where and how you study, write or practice. There are a lot of ways to keep life interesting and at the same time keep consistency. You can have both.
And remember, whether it’s your genes, your upbringing or sheer luck, to be consistent will lead you to success!
Comments