How Successful Writers and World-Class Athletes Stick To A Regimen

When it’s so easy to quit

We all have lofty hopes for ourselves, and yet so many of our goals fade away. New Year’s Resolutions end up on the junk pile of half-baked wishes within weeks of making promises to ourselves.

One way to make sure you reach your goals is to develop the habits that lead to success. According to James Clear in Atomic Habits, one reason we have so much trouble sticking to a regimen is what he calls the Goldilocks Rule.

When the challenge is too easy, we lose interest. When the challenge is too hard, we throw up our hands and quit. But when we are working just a bit out of our comfort zone, our attention is more focused. We are motivated to keep going by having a continuous stretch that’s just right.

Slightly challenging activity keeps us engaged and driven. It’s the key to staying in a state of flow, where we are so delighted with what we are doing, that time melts away.

Well, guess what? Constant daily practice isn’t like that. It’s repetitive. You can’t be in a state of flow all the time. But without that continuous practice and development, no one becomes a world-class athlete or a successful writer.

Professional athletes are living the dream on the playing field, but they don’t get there without spending hours doing reps in the gym and taking thousands of the same shot repeatedly. Successful writers write hundreds of thousands of words without the dopamine hit of a viral story. The key to reaching their goals is consistency over days, months, and years. They do what is necessary to push themselves in the face of boredom.

You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you. — Andy Warhol

Conventional wisdom tells us that we need to be passionate about what we’re doing, but passion isn’t sustainable every single day. It’s the ability to work through the boredom of the day-in and day-out practice that gets you to your goal.

I use a meditation app called Insight Timer that understands this. As long as I meditate every day, it keeps track of the consecutive days. But if I miss a day, I have to start all over again to get a badge. This app has helped me understand that consistency in the face of daily excuses to stop is critical.

A powerful lesson in overcoming boredom is from the film The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne is accused of killing his wife and is sentenced to life in a prison from which no one escapes. His goal is to free himself. He uses a tiny carving tool to cut through rock with the hope of escaping. Every day the work is the same. Dig and remove dirt. Dig and remove dirt. He lived for the goal of achieving his freedom and he kept digging for 17 years. In the end, his tunnel was long enough to crawl through and escape to freedom.

The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom. — James Clear

James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, is one of the most popular books of all time about creating habits, but of all his valuable tips, the most impactful one to me is about accepting boredom. It’s helped me overcome the biggest obstacle in reaching my goals — the urge to quit.