Did you ever make a snowman as a kid? If so, how did you do it? Did you just randomly find a giant ball of snow, put some sticks, rocks, and a carrot in it and call it a snowman? Of course not, that would be far too easy!
Instead, you grabbed a small handful of snow and slowly started packing more and more snow onto it. As it slowly grew in size, you could simply place the ball of snow on the ground and roll it around to collect more snow. As the surface area of the snowball grew, so did the amount of snow it picked up. Because of this, it took you more time to go from having no snowball to a small-sized snowball, than it did from a small-sized snowball to a huge snowball.
This is where the term ‘snowballing’ comes from. Some might call this exponential growth, but I like to describe it as ‘consistency compounds’.
Anyone can feel motivated for a day. Anyone can go for a run or go to the gym for a few days in a row. Anyone can follow a diet for a week. Anyone can wake up at 5am once or twice.
While these are good accomplishments and they do make you better, they’re still lacking something...
Consistency.
Can you wake up at 5am every single day for a year? Can you follow a diet for a decade? Can you show up to the gym 7 days a week, every week?
Most people will try some big new venture because they’re feeling super motivated, they do it a few times, then they slowly fade away. After they quit, they’re upset because they put in ‘so much effort’ and didn’t see immediate results.
We must rid ourselves of this desire for instant gratification. Anything that’s worth doing in life is difficult and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight.
If you want to truly grow, get better, and see yourself become the person you want to be, you must do one thing: be consistent. Show up day in and day out—no matter the weather, no matter how you feel.
It’s not motivation that leads to growth, but it’s consistency.
Show up, do the work, be present, be persistent, and most importantly, be consistent.
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