Learn and get good at anything through consistency

Learn and get good at anything through consistency

Focus on consistency, not intensity.

Introduction

I started getting into self-improvement around the age of 15/16 when I began kickboxing. Changing my life and getting better at things. Since then I have tried multiple different strategies for getting good at things, and how to do so in the quickest way possible.

There is only one approach I have found that has always worked for me if I want to get good at anything: The consistency-first approach.

Consistency-first

This is an approach I learned from Firas Zahabi, the greatest MMA coach alive today. However, he was speaking of it in the context of working out, but I believe it can be applied to anything and ties well to forming habits.

Wrong way

In the context of this approach, the wrong way would be to focus on intensity and getting to your end destination as quickly as possible. Because if you do that, you will end up obsessing over the end destination and not obsessing over making progress.

You will keep draining yourself in two ways:

  • Mentally obsessing over that you've not reached the end destination

  • Mentally and physically due to the intensity of your effort

Trying to accomplish a goal the wrong way will rarely lead to good, both short-term and long-term.

Example

Let's say you want to learn to code and get good at it. You begin by coding every day for 12 hours. After a week you feel drained. You end up getting very demotivated and likely burnout.

As a result, you quit coding. You decide to blame it on coding, and not the way you approached it.

Right way

The right way is to focus on the smallest effort that you can measure. Begin small and turn it into a habit. Be consistent. Once you have been consistent for a few days or weeks depending on what you're trying to accomplish, increase the intensity.

This way focuses on being consistent. You want to increase the intensity over time, but not too fast to a point you get burned out.

Every time you increase the intensity, make sure to turn the new amount of effort into something you will definitely be consistent with.

Example

Let's say you want to begin reading books. You dislike reading but decided to finally do it.

Begin reading every day for 10 minutes. Do it for a week. Increase your reading time to 20 minutes after a week. Do it for a week or two, till you feel you have turned it into something you can be consistent with. Increase your reading time to 30 minutes, and continue the formula.

By approaching it this way, you're always consistent in making progress, and make sure the effort is never too intense because you get used to it.

Consistent progress over time is key to accomplishing anything.

Conclusion

This took time to learn for me. However, I have realized that this is the best approach for learning and getting good at things.

I have experimented a lot with myself. Primarily because I want to find the best and most efficient ways of learning and mastering things. In the end, consistency is key.