“Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.” – Robert Pirsig, Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The decision to commit to a lifestyle that includes physical training as a high ranking priority is often motivated by a very specific desired result. “I wanna get shredded for vacation next month!” The same can be said for many who are already accustomed to training, but want to achieve a new personal record. “I’m going to lift twice my bodyweight before my next birthday!” We get a goal in mind and decide it’s time to take action to hit it. But to achieve any truly challenging goal, if the mindset remains focused entirely on the expected outcome, our efforts (valiant though they may be) somehow still fall short of the mark. Yes, becoming distracted from an objective can be a reason that we don’t reach it, but a short-term obsession with a desired result won’t make it happen either. Dedication to a process, however… Now that will drive a meaningful change.
This is the basis of all lasting athletic improvement, and the reason that committing to “doing workouts” for a while or even completing one good program, isn’t all that great at getting sustainable results. Instead, routinely adhering to good principles of training, recovery and periodization will actually build the intangible we call “character,” which is the basis for authentic, enduring refinement. You might be thinking; “I’ve seen the influencers influencing and they seem pretty convinced that a laser focus on the goal is what makes successful people successful!!” Well… that might be what some gurus say or maybe even think, but to make a truly remarkable long-term change we have to do more than just spend time visualizing a result, we need to actually unlearn our old habits and adopt a lasting set of new routines.
“Good or bad, habits always deliver results.” – Jack Canfield
When goal setting, you might ask yourself, “Do I have what it takes to accomplish this?” This can trigger a bit of insubstantial guesswork and drive an emotional decision. Better to ask, “Do I want to create the habits of someone who can achieve this?” This means we have to actually get to know what the routine of a successful person looks like. With that said, merely mimicking another athlete’s programing won’t clone that athlete’s results. Simply put, we cannot possess another athlete’s character, which was built in unique conditions and formed from deeply personal experiences. We can, however take inspiration from another’s success and use it to cultivate a set of experiences and actions which form a character and routine of our own.
“Long-term consistency trumps short term intensity.” Bruce Lee
Most fitness marketing is geared toward tricking us into viewing our future success based on the results of just one (often intense) bout of exercise, series of sessions or short term program. “The results you want in just six weeks!” This also applies to nutrition and recovery practices as much as it does to strength and conditioning. “If I can just accomplish short-term goal ‘x,’ then I’ll be in a much better place and it will be easy to tackle any other hard stuff.” This attitude can cause even the most driven trainee to rush to the top of a hill only to find themselves at the foot of a daunting mountain that they now have no ability to climb. Instead, a commitment to a process (not just a program or outcome) of habitually taking steps that cultivates new skill, of eschewing actions that delay progress, these habits forge more capable people who can climb just about any mountain.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
Progress really comes down to the above statement from Aristotle. As human beings, one of our greatest gifts is the amazing ability to learn and to adapt. Physical adaptation is what we hope to achieve from training, of course, but what actually drives this adaptation? What builds new skills? How about a consistent exposure to the adaptive stimulus, that should drive the changes we’re looking for, right? And what is “consistency,” if not being in the habit of doing something?
It sounds so simple; adopt a practice routine. But as much as we love to extol the simple virtues of regular practice, research has shown that engaging in deliberate practice only accounts for about 12% of the change we see in the quality of our performance. Only 12%! We want to do a whole lot better than just a 12% improvement though, so if consistent practice isn’t all that we need, then what else goes into this cocktail?
Assessment, introspection, adjustment, experimentation, these all have to be part of the routine as well. Think of it this way: if I practice poor technique consistently, then I will become very adept at doing something poorly. Merely practicing for the sake of practice isn’t going to affect much of a change. It is the actual learning that should result from practice, how we adjust to mistakes, the progressive nature of our adaptation, that drives meaningful improvement. Granted, consistent practice is a start, but then we must evaluate progress, abandon old methods or personal biases that are no longer serving us and seek out creative solutions to new challenges that arise. If this transformative process is repeated often enough it will become a set of habits and these habits are the elements which cultivate character in successful people.
“All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.” – Epictetus
Now, in spite of how challenging this transformative process may sound, we must still dare to make plans for a brighter future and not shrink from focusing on big ideas and daunting goals! But in doing so we should consider shifting our focus from an end result to the process of cultivating successful routines. The habit of being successful isn’t built by chance, it’s achieved by sustaining what we know needs to be done and learning to abstain from the destructive, over and over again. The resulting character is capable of not just one good result, but a continuous series of accomplishments; the habit of excellence.