Cheatcode to Staying Consistent

If you ask any successful person in life, including lottery winners, they did something consistently for a long period of time and it paid off. That is the key, consistency, and in my short life I have struggled with developing this trait, until I changed one thing. Here is that story.

For a little background, I have been lifting since I was 12 years old. I have always been an athlete with dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. Needless to say, that did not happen for me and it was all my fault. To make your life easier, take responsibility for everything that happens for you and to you. That way consciously you are always in control of your life. It did not happen to me because I was not consistent. I was inconsistent in my training and therefore inconsistent in my performance in game.

Unfortunately, I did not realize this until my playing days were over. I ended my career in May of 2023 in the worst season of my life, not the worst performing season, but because I did not touch the field a single time. I was selected as a pre season All-American who did not play a single game in the season of which I was supposed to achieve it. The whole season I was miserable and the only consistent part about it was my ass on the bench every game.

Of course, the whole year I complained and blamed my coach for screwing me out of my opportunity and my last year playing baseball. Up until September 2023, my blaming stopped. My girlfriend and I broke up and I realized several days later that it was my fault, and I realized that it was my fault for me not playing a single game. It was my fault for not treating my last season as my last shot to go pro and therefore not training the same or even harder leading up to it.

Now, I try to be consistent in everything I do, because when I am not consistent in the good things, bad things will happen consistently. As you can see, this new character trait is one I am still developing but I have seen progress in the financial success, physique success, and happiness success. Although, I am no where close to where I want to be, the progress getting there has given me numerous amounts of happiness and this is what I want to share with you.

The reason I started engaging in this battle with myself was because I was angry that I allowed myself to basically let my younger self down. I was not true to my word when I said that I was gonna make it and it really bothered me. I obviously was not where I wanted to be and I had no idea where I wanted to go. I had a degree in my hand but still did not know if I wanted to pursue a career in it. So, as a 24 year old, just graduated, the everyday question was, "So what do you want to do?", my answer, "I don't know".

Throughout college I knew that I did not really want to pursue a long career in the tech industry, but I had a bright future, people would tell me, and thats what drove me was the thought that, "Once I get out of here, I am gonna get a software development job and make a lot of money and life will be great". Well, that did not happen, because I had no experience and no why behind me driving me to do the uncommon things.

Approaching my big "AH-HA" moment. Like I said, me and my girlfriend had just broken up, and her famous last words to me, "Don't you have better things to worry about". Initially, I thought yeah I do, but as I sat in there thinking I realized I did not. A terrifying realization, realizing you do not have a purpose and no real why for doing anything. So I started doing some soul searching so to speak, and discovered that everything that I did not achieve was my fault. I had lost my why and thus causing not to be that uncommon/driven man I once was when I was striving for something.

Find your why.

The why is the reason behind your every move. It is the reason you get out of bed in the morning, the reason you do the things that no one else is doing, the reason you go do the thing you need even when you are hurting, tired, cold, unmotivated. Your why is your conscious speaking to you.

Most people quit because their why is weaker than the voice in their head that is giving every reason behind why they should quit or take a break. You have probably experienced this when you have started something, but did not finish it because your why was out barked by your voice of comfort. This reason why, is absolutely a necessity to becoming consistent.

It is on you and only you.

We come into this world alone, and we will leave this world alone. That may sound dark but it is true. One of my favorite quotes is, "There is no one coming to save you", I am not sure who is the original author to that quote but I heard it from, Alex Hormozi. This realization for me has been a turning point in my life i believe, even though it is too early to tell.

It is has made me realize that I can achieve or not achieve anything I want because I ultimately have complete responsibility in my life. Obviously, there are things that we do not have control over, but if you can re-wire your brain to take responsibility for everything it makes you think more and become smarter also you will start to live for yourself and not others. Doing things because I want to do them has brought me more happiness than I could have imagined.

This is essential to developing consistency in your life, especially fitness. Losing weight, becoming healthier, or becoming stronger is all about personal responsibility. If you boil down things you can control, I think one of the most basic things you can always control, is what you do to your body, more specifically what you put into your body. Therefore, taking responsibility for what goes into your body day after day is consistency, but it starts with accepting that responsibility that it is your fault if you do not look the way you want to.

Power of self talk

You have probably heard the saying, "Be careful of the way you speak to yourself, you will start to believe it". I recently heard, "If you spoke to your friends the way you speak to yourself, would you have any friends?" and when I take a look back and reflect, hell no.

Throughout my years of baseball, anytime I made a mistake the things I would say to myself would get me thrown in jail, if I said it to anyone else. There would have been a fight. I would say it to myself over and over again and then sure enough the mistakes would compound. Eventually I learned the power of self talk, and later in my career I became a better player and more consistent, obviously not as consistent as I needed to be but I still progressed.

In this short time that I have been retired, I have learned the power of self talk and how it relates too consistency. I was watching a podcast with Alex Hormozi, he is one of my heroes, and he was talking about how his mind plays certain quotes when he does not feel like doing what is required of him. My take-away was not the quote he would say to himself, but the action itself. The action being the self talk that wills him to do the things that he needs to do.

This has been incredibly powerful. For example, I have always loved to lift and workout but my eating habits stopped me from looking how I want. I never had the self discipline to follow an actual diet to completion to achieve the end result, until I learned this skill. I used to come back from the gym so hungry that I would eat everything in site, thus causing me to gain weight. In August, after I watched that podcast, I now say to myself when I am looking at all the food I could eat, "How do you want to look?". I have the mental image of how I want to look and it is so clear in my mind, those words will stop me from cheating on my diet. Since August, I have lost 20 pounds and all of my lifts have gone up.

Consistency is a skill, and just like any skill it can be learned. The three that have helped me in my young journey are finding the why behind it, taking responsibility for your own life, and mastering the talk you say to yourself. I am sure I will find more pieces of knowledge and when I do I will share it to y'all savages in the making.

As always, I am rooting for you. All the love in the world, GW.