If you’re looking to instil a new habit, you must make doing it convenient. If you’re looking to break an old habit, you must make not doing it convenient. If you’re looking to do anything that you feel like you should and want to do, but don’t due to common distractions, you must make doing it convenient. If you want to consistently do anything, you must make doing it convenient.
There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs
There are so many things that are required to be successful at anything. So many little factors that must be accounted for. It’s a long journey of hard work so you must give yourself the best possible chance of achieving. One of these things is to make the goal/objective you are chasing convenient.
For example let’s say that you are looking to consistently work out in the gym, five days a week. This requires dedication and sacrifice. A sacrifice of your precious time five days a week. This can be difficult to sustain. Especially nowadays with the obscene amount of distractions available to us through the power of social media and technology.
So how can you make this goal as achievable as possible? By making it convenient! If the gym is not close to where you live and you don’t drive then it’s not going to be convenient to go there, is it? If the gym is always busy when you wish to go, then it’s not going to be convenient to go, is it? And if it’s not convenient to go then you will not consistently go. If you don’t consistently go then you will be back at square one, scratching your head and wondering how you can become more consistent.
If you stay ready you won’t have to get ready
We need our environment to support us. As easy as it is to assume that when the time comes we’ll be ready, it’s simply not true. Not without the right environment and tools. We need to give ourselves the best possible chances of achieving our goals and making the habits we wish to instil a lifestyle. By having our environment in our favour, by staying ready, we can make these objectives much easier to achieve. The matter of convenience is arguably the most important factor in all this. Perhaps more so than the financial cost of it.
But things are always changing. Every day there is change. We must stay ready if we wish to be consistent and ultimately achieve what we want to achieve. Going back to the gym example, you may work out at a gym that is close to you, one which you walk to. However when the weather changes, something you cannot control, how will you react then? Let’s say it has started to rain heavily; your desire to exercise at the gym will undoubtedly be less than it was when the weather was good. Why? Because it will no longer be as convenient as it was.
No excuses
It should be noted that if the desire is strong enough, the objective will be completed. There are never any excuses. If you are intent on going to the gym, come what may, you will. And huge credit to you and all of the people who relentlessly pursue their goals and dreams no matter what. That is what undoubtedly separates the great from the good.
However it is important to give ourselves the best possible chance to achieve. The mind is naturally lazy and weak. It is always looking for excuses. So make things convenient. It will make the task much easier.
Thank you.
Tony.
