Ever wondered what makes Olympians and other world-class athletes that way? How they get to the very top of human performance? What makes them different from regular Jane?
Surely, many athletes have a natural talent and nurture it since they’ve very young. Gymnasts start as early as 3 or 4 years old, for example. BUT there’s one more thing that’s key. Not even the most naturally gifted athlete would get to the world stage without this key component.
Consistency differentiates the great from the rest
Consistency is the commitment to SHOW UP, day after Day. Month after Month. Year after Year. Regardless of whatever personal thing might be going on. And you know what…not just SHOW UP. World-class athletes SHOW UP and they TAKE ACTION. They DO THE THING instead of talking about the thing, thinking about the thing, or wondering whether they should actually do the thing.
Because THAT is how goals are met. ZERO goals were EVER achieved when consistency was absent. Athletes have a VERY SPECIFIC plan of ACTION for their goal. But a plan is just a plan if you are not taking CONSISTENT ACTION of the items on the plan.
Every athlete on the cover of a news outlet or partnered with your favorite athleisure brand has built a DAILY routine to execute their “road to the Olympics” plan. They do this over and over and over again to where this is who they are and what they do. It is their NORM.
They follow the plan when they’re excited. But also when they’re tired. Or when they’re sad, angry, heartbroken. The plan is there to follow when they feel like it, but also when they don’t. ESPECIALLY when they don’t.
It’s just a non negotiable.
That’s not to say there’s never a moment where a fleeting thought of “ugh, this sucks right now. I don’t really feel it today.” But it stays as exactly that, a fleeting thought. And they suck it up and get out there anyway. Because there is only one path toward progress…and that is taking the actions that LEAD to progress.
Choose consistency over motivation every darn time
Consistency is BUILT over time. It means creating a routine that involves the actions that lead to where you are trying to go. That routine becomes programmed in as a habit, which is just who you are and what you do. Your habits are comforting to you because they are so familiar.
Many of the athletes that you see will tell you that they find solace from hard times in their life by going to training. When they are struggling, it is where they WANT to go. Because it is their steady. They are so familiar with it that it brings them peace.
Having a plan makes it easier to stick to your goals because you don’t have to constantly question what’s next. No more staring at the open fridge wondering what to cook. No more laying in bed wondering whether you’ll head out for a walk today or not.
But most importantly, being consistent helps you better manage yourself because it gives you a window where you get to block everything else out for even just a fraction of your day.
Think about the things that bring you peace. When you are frustrated, angry, or anxious, where do you turn for peace? What is your habit loop to those emotions? Whether you realize it or not, you have one. What is it? Is it something that will HELP you reach your goals? Yes. GREAT. No? We have to go to work to REPROGRAM that. It takes anywhere from 21 ABSOLUTELY CONSISTENT days to up to 2 years to build in a habit loop that is strong and solid. When it comes to breaking up with a life long habitual response to pairing food to emotions, it is going to be closer to the 2 year mark.
I just promise you this. If this is something you WANT, you must ACCEPT this and really understand what you are trying to do here.
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If you are trying to break old habits and replace them with new ones, you have to be SO CONSISTENT. More consistent than you think. All in. ESPECIALLY in the beginning. The new habit never forms if you keep repeating the old one, if you keep negotiating the new routine, or skipping it altogether. When you’re constantly finding reasons not to do the new routine, or changing it to something more comfortable. Or worse, feeling SORRY for yourself about it.
The ONLY thing we do consistently are our habits
Habits are like our software, the way we do things when we’re on autopilot and not thinking through our actions. As you can see, habits are what can get you in real trouble. On the flip side, the more you execute your new routine WITHOUT questioning it, the easier it will become. The more you will hard wire these things into your brain, and the more COMFORT you will find in doing them.
Removing emotion out of the fact of these routines will help make the process easier, too.
Do you really want to spend several hours feeling sorry that you have to eat your omelette, or can you just eat the thing and move on with your day?
Save your thinking and emotions for other things in your life… NOT about what you are eating for lunch. I know chances are you would rather have something else in the beginning—something you are more used to—, but remember that those things were not on the path to your goals. Keep your plan business-only. Make it non-negotiable, knowing that MOST of what makes this difficult right now is that it is not comfortable yet. The ONLY way to make it comfortable is to allow it to program.
You can save your emotional energy for really difficult things that life will no-doubt bring your way. Eating lunch doesn’t need to be an emotional experience. It is a physical one. Instead, use that energy in other areas of your life.
Consistency doesn’t happen OVERNIGHT
It doesn’t happen in one day. Or by stringing 2-3 days together. It happens over TIME, a long period of time. What’s more, consistency doesn’t happen to YOU; YOU have to make it happen by actively choosing to work on it.
Our passive behavior will always be what our current habits are. Those are the things that led to where we are today. If you are trying to change this, you have to WORK to actively change this. You have to force yourself to push through discomfort, knowing that you are on the right path. If you are doing something that feels UNCOMFORTABLE, GOOD! That means that you are doing something that you haven’t been. You are building a NEW habit.
The ONLY thing we will EVER do consistently are the things that we LIKE to do. We like what is familiar, and things become familiar over time.
Change is incremental
Probably the biggest mistake we see people make when building in new habits is thinking in terms of all or nothing. Ok, Jenny, you said all of this today, now I am going to go implement everything in extreme! I’m motivated!!!
Stop trying to SPEED this along. Olympians got to where they are by building up to this over time. They were ALL beginners.
The point of this exercise is NOT to go to the level of intensity of any Olympian. What we’re looking for is how they GOT to where they are. What taking consistent action over time looks like. Their current goal is a gold medal, but that hasn’t always been the case. They started somewhere too. The goal of the gold medal came later. It was a progression that most likely BEGAN when they were young. They have been building on this for a long time.
They may have a head start, but we are completely capable of making the same sort of progression toward our goals. But you have to start where you are and be absolutely consistent and stay focused on the goal and what needs to be done to get there.
They’re also not in the all or nothing camp. They’re out there absolutely doing the thing, but in order for this to be sustainable over a long period, they’re spending most of their time somewhere in the middle —redefining what that middle even means for them.
Look at Simone Biles in the 2024 Olympics. She fell off the beam and got her butt back on that thing to finish her routine. She walked off with a silver medal after completing her floor routine. YEARS and years of preparation led to that medal.
Look further back now. To the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when she got the zoomies and had to step off. Did she go back to nothing after this? HECK no. She got back to a middle ground, sucked up her pride, and found the issues that led to that point. From there, she recalibrated. It took her 2 years to overcome it. She never gave up or said, Well, I have the twisties, I’m done. She said, I have the twisties. I am not ready to be done, so I am going to figure this out.
She had to rewire some things, just like you and I have to do. During this process, she is still CONSISTENTLY going to therapy, because this is a fairly new revelation for her. She is having to reprogram a LOT of the way she thinks, and that takes time. You can SEE the change in her from the last Olympics.
If they can do it, so can you
Objectively speaking, the Olympics are at the very top of human performance. What we are trying to do here is a heck of a lot more achievable.
I actually LOVE dealing with weight loss, because it is not a hard code to crack. It’s science. The THINGS you have to do are VERY simple. The path forward is VERY clear. What makes it hard is getting your mind in line with what we are doing. But ACTUALLY doing the things that you need to do to lose weight doesn’t require a natural talent. Not everyone can do Simone Biles routines no matter how hard they try, but weight loss CAN be done with anyone, if they WANT to.
Of course, there may be things that temporarily set you back—things out of your control. Your cycle, food sensitivities, a flat tire on the way to the gym, or the occasional, “I’m not prepared and I was starving.”
I would equate those things to falling off the beam. Suni Lee’s belly flop. Sort of things that you don’t have control over, or really, things you aren’t CONSCIOUSLY deciding to do.
I don’t put eating cookies in this category. You always have a choice what you put in your mouth. That is not the same thing as falling off the beam. Simone didn’t say, you know what? I need a break; I’m going to hop off for a second. She didn’t CHOOSE that—but she adapted. She recovered.
Eating a cookie is like saying, I’m going to go out there and perform, but I’m going to take some of the difficulty out and accept a lower score.
Nothing is WRONG with that. You actually see athletes doing this all of the time, especially on vault. Those decisions are CALCULATED, with their coach. It is absolutely planned to make sure the BEST SCORE possible is achieved.
There will be times that you “fall off the beam” and times that you reduce difficulty and accept a lower score. We try to set your nutrient targets so that you won’t KEEP falling off the beam.
If you try to rush things and pull back on your nutrients too much to try to get there sooner, the chance that you will continue to fall off the beam will increase. We have given you the perfect difficulty to challenge you, so try that before you try to work on something too advanced. A beam routine that is a little less hard, but has been practiced and performed 1,000 times correctly has a better likelihood of doing well when at the olympics. Then, we can work on increasing difficulty as we go.
You have to first master the basics. Then keep moving forward…not looking backward.
Consistency is the foundation
Consistency is the foundation of success in any area of life, especially when it comes to building habits that align with your goals. It’s not about perfection; it’s about showing up, even when it’s uncomfortable, and doing the work, day after day.
So, take a moment to reflect: What habits are helping you move closer to your goals, and which ones might be holding you back? What’s one small, consistent action you can commit to today?
If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of building better habits and want support every step of the way, MYLF Coaching is here for you. Learn more about The Reset, our signature one-week program designed to help you reprogram your habits and mindsets for long-term success.
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