Inspiration Vs. Consistency

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: the most successful people are not always inspired. They don’t operate on motivation. They aren’t productive only when they feel the spark.

The thing that sets successful people apart from idealists is consistency.

It’s the power of showing up when you don’t want to.

It’s the process of making forward motion no matter what.

Successful people don’t give themselves the option of opting out of their success. They schedule their productivity as if it were as common as making dinner each day.

So many of us make the mistake of waiting until a burst of inspiration hits us to make a move. We wait until we feel motivated to take action. I have been guilty of this for so long!

But there is a huge difference between the person that takes one step forward every single day and the person that takes three steps forward every once in a while. One is always progressing.

Think about it this way:

Your goal is to read more. You can either read 5 pages every single day no matter what or you can read 20 pages in one sitting every week. Even if it seems like the 20 pages is more work, you have to account for how that adds up over time. The person that reads just 5 pages a day actually accomplishes more! And it’s all because you choose consistency over inspiration. Picking up what I’m putting down?

Let me clarify one thing though. Acting on a whim of motivation is not bad. You should absolutely lean into that when it hits. The lesson here is that you cannot abandon ship when that feeling vanishes. That’s when consistency comes into play.

Schedule your progress into your day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Success will shift from a dream to a reality as you put one foot in front of the other as consistently as possible.