You’re doing too little

Ryan Holiday has published one book per year for the last 12 years. He also runs every single day. 

Seth Godin has published a daily blog for the last 15 years. He also has written 20 bestsellers, and volunteers at an outdoor camp every year. 

Dwayne Johnson is in more movies than anybody, yet he still works out like a madman virtually every day. 

For a long time I wondered how these people I admired, who did so much, also had time for their health, for their hobbies, and seemingly so much more. 

Then I figured it out. 

I always struggled to read. That was before I challenged myself to write every day. Then I had to read, just to have the requisite amount of ideas flowing through my brain to be able to write every day. 

I struggled to stay consistent with my fitness. Then, in the middle of everything else I had going on, I decided to train for a marathon. Then I had to be consistent with my running, or I’d be in severe pain on race day. 

And that’s when I figured it out: High performance in one area causes high performance in another. 

Here’s what’s crazy: performing at work gets easier the more things I add in. Why? Because in order to run a marathon, I have to be mentally locked in, and unsinkable. In order to blog every day, I have to be sharp and organized with my time. All of this transfers over to my work and my life. 

Maybe the reason we struggle with consistency and focus is not because we’re doing too much…but because we’re doing too little.