I was recently listening to an episode of The Drive, a podcast hosted by Dr. Peter Attia, on which Peter interviewed Ryan Hall, a former Olympic marathoner, current trainer of endurance athletes, and overall badass. To validate my last description, Ryan recently took on a feat of strength called Chop Wood, Carry Water. In this challenge, Ryan planned to split one cord of wood (a unit of measurement for wood stacked 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long), then continue the physical feat by running 6.3 miles down into the Grand Canyon, then carrying two large jugs of water (weighing 62 pounds each) in each hand back up the same path (climbing 5,000 feet). You can read more in this Men’s Health article. Before moving on to the next paragraph, visualize carrying 62-pound buckets of water from your front door to the driveway. Just the pain in my fingers would stop me! Now, consider carrying them up the Grand Canyon. Unreal.
When asking about his preparation, Ryan stated that he never trained for more than 20 minutes at a time carrying heavy water buckets. Paraphrasing, he stated that consistency is the most important thing in his training. He knew that he had to set the bar low. If he committed to training 90 minutes a day on the heavy buckets carries, he wouldn’t have done it because he has a business to run, a family, and other training to do each day. His advice was to set the bar low, so you’re guaranteed to be consistent. Doing a little bit every day is more important that doing a lot every now and then.
You know those intentional things that you want to, but you never seem to find the time to do? You know the things I’m talking about: networking, professional development, prospecting, etc.? How high have you set the bar? Are you trying to prospect to 100 new accounts? How about trying this concept of setting the bar so low that you’re guaranteed to do something every week. How about investing 30 minutes per week on prospecting, joining one association for networking and committing to attending half of the meetings throughout the year, or maybe do 10 minutes of professional development every morning? Heck, do half of that!
Consistency wins every time. Don’t try to take on the world, just do a little bit, but do it consistently!
