“Small
disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements
gained slowly over time.”—John C. Maxwell
In their powerful book, “The One
Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extra-Ordinary Results,” Gary
Keller and Jay Papasan debunk the myths that are held by many people regarding
productivity and success, while confirming what it really takes to be a true champion
in any field of activity.
The book contains a lot of good ideas and I will be referring to some
of them in my subsequent articles. Meanwhile, today, you are about to learn
just one of those simple but powerful tips on performance for success and
mastery.
In a chapter, the authors wrote about a rookie’s meeting with a
professional in the game of fun and laughter: Brad Isaac and Jerry Seinfeld
respectively. Brad approached Jerry Seinfeld for guidance on how to perform
better. And Seinfeld cheerfully answered the newbie as follows:
He said that to be a good joker, one must create good jokes and to create good jokes, one must make it a
daily practice: one must think and write it out, every day.
Based on that insight, Seinfeld advised Brad to get a single page
annual calendar for recording his daily commitments. And each day that he does
his job of writing jokes, he should mark the day’s date on the calendar with the
letter X for the day’s time logged.
In Jerry’s exact words, he concluded his advice thus:
“After a few days, you will have a chain (under your belt). Just keep
at it and the chain will grow longer every day. Your only job is: don’t break
the chain.”
The last sentence illustrates the royal skill of the advisor: “Your
ONLY job is: don’t break the chain.”
In other words, he must commit to the process wholeheartedly. He must accept that he doesn’t get to have
a day off—ever; (except for family crises and critical illness) not even on
weekend, not even on the day he is tired, not even on the day he doesn’t feel
like working.
As you can see, the main thing here is unremitting consistency. It is
not necessarily about the intensity of a practice and not necessarily about the
quality of the day’s input. It is primarily about constancy of purpose; it is about
stick-ability.
For this reason, moderation is implied. So the task should be
pint-sized but tangible enough to produce the result you want in the long-run. This is why the author of the “The Secret of
the Ages,” Robert Collier said, “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated
day in day out.”
Here in lies the real secret of what it takes to be a true champion,
whether as a comic, an entrepreneur, an athlete or a scholar. It is about, “discipline
and consistency,” adds Denzel Washington, the American Golden Globe award
winner.
This is the key differentiator between amateurs and professionals in
all walks of life. As champions are
simply those who adhere to a repeatable process on a daily basis whereas
amateurs are those who work in huge bursts of intensity only when they feel
like working.
Amateurs can get easily sidetracked for many days in a row just
because of a minor sad event or because they are not just in the mood. But
champions never forget the rule of not breaking the chain on their “One Thing,”
no matter how difficult the day is for them or how uninspired they feel or how
bad their work is on a particular day. True champions always put in the work,
even on their worst days; even if their input is lousy, they show-up
nonetheless, and try to perform better the very next day.
And for us too, in our critical challenges, if we decide to apply this
principle by deciding not to break the chain and adhere to the process of
striving daily towards our big goals, the outcomes we cherish are soon to
become sure realities.
Finally, winning rarely requires monumental surges of inputs and a grand
act of bravery. But it sure requires the
discipline to do the essentials things, one step at a time—one day at a time. And
the Canadian writer and motivational speaker, Robin Sharma concludes it beautifully
for us by saying: “Success is all about consistency around the fundamentals; at
the heart of mastery lives consistency.”
So, if you decide to never break the chain of getting better at the
basics of your craft—on a daily basis—then the extra-ordinary results of your
dreams will inevitably approach you.
