Secrets to Success, Part 1

Consistency. We know this. It’s not a secret. But it bears re-emphasis, as we often fail to do what we know we should do.

Consistency is the true test of good training.

It’s not rare to hear, “Yeah my training was going well, but then I just lost the motivation”.

It is not hard to train when you’re motivated.

It is not painful to train when you’re excited.

You are tested on the days when you’re unmotivated. Your muscles are sore. It’s cold outside. Your dog is curled up at the foot of the bed. Your wife is sleeping.

These are the days when you must take a deep breath, remind yourself why you’re training, envision your goal, and then get outside. Go hit the pavement, grind the gears, punish the lane line. Those days represent the victories.

It is no victory to train when you want to train. Don’t flatter yourself.

But take all those victories — all those times you emerged victorious when your body made excuses, when your brain begged for a day off — stack all those victories one on top of another. Those are what kept your training consistent. And that consistency is what will help you succeed.

Consistency is not a secret. People are simply inconsistent because it’s hard. Because it hurts.

But if you test yourself everyday, learn to look forward to the hard days. When you make it through enough hard days, you’ll be the one on gameday making it look easy.