Read time: 5 mins
We've all heard the gospel of consistency:
Show up daily
Grind your ass off
Eventually, success will be yours
But what if this relentless consistency is holding you back?
Let's explore why and come up with a better system based on persistence.
Consistency vs. Persistence
Consistency is showing up daily and putting in the work.
Persistence is that plus adaptability, self-compassion, and the drive to never give up.
Here's why consistency can be a trap:
One harsh truth: you can’t be consistent all the time.
Motivation is unreliable: You need a deeper "why" to fuel your fire.
Perfectionism paralysis: Sky-high expectations and godly timelines lead to frustration and quitting.
The myth of daily grind
Life isn't a perfectly paved road.
Inspiration ebbs and flows. Energy levels fluctuate.
And sometimes, life throws curve-square-and-triangle balls that derail your daily routine.
Forcing consistency in these moments leads to frustration, burnout, and ultimately, abandonment of the goal.
In this case, the process of consistency is working against us. 😢
The problem with consistency — it demands linear, robotic action.
But life is non-linear. And the good news is…
There’s a better way and we’ll call it persistent progress.
Enter Persistence
Instead of the daily grind, focus on forward momentum. No matter how small.
The twist: we'll steal the best principles from consistency to build a system that works for you instead of against you and treats you like a human, not machine.
But first, here’s what consistency vs persistence look like.
Here's your Persistent Progress framework:
1. Define your "Why"
Don't just have a goal, have a burning reason behind it.
Wanna build a business? Why → to get rich so I can…
Wanna get physically fit? Why → to live a healthy life so I can…
Wanna become content creator? Why → to become famous so I can…
You get the idea.
2. Set micro tasks
On average, it takes 10 weeks for a new behavior to become automatic.
Break down your big goal into micro tasks spread over 10 weeks.
The Grandma test: Feeling overwhelmed by a goal or challenge? Ask yourself, "Would my grandma consider this goal achievable?"
3. Find your unique rhythm
We all have unique productivity cycles.
Identify yours and leverage those bursts of focus & inspiration to get a week’s worth of work done.
Batching allows you to avoid the drag of forcing daily consistency.
Learn it from Naval 👇
“Don’t work like a sheep,
grazing 8 hours a day slowly.
Instead, work like a lion,
sprint once with full energy,
sleep for rest of the day.”
If schedules work for you, use implementation intentions — specify when, where, and how you'll take action towards your goal.
“Don’t prioritize your schedule. Schedule your priorities.”
— Stephen Convey
4. Minimum viable expectation
By having a big ass expectation, you invite procrastination and guilt.
Instead, lower your expectations to minimum viable.
For example, if I’m launching a new Shopify store, I don’t want a goal like “get 1000 customers in 3 months.”
Two problems with this:
3 months is a big time frame, nobody knows 3 months.
1000 customers is a jump. Before 1000 comes 1, 10, 100.
Instead, my goal should be: 1 customer in 2 weeks. Then 3 customers in the next 2 weeks. And so on.
In simple words, pick a battle. Don’t aim to win the war.
Bonus: If you choose ‘try until I enjoy’ as your expectation, it has three benefits:
Minimizes commitment
Keeps you focused on process, not results
It’s your ultimate joy-test (if you don’t enjoy the process, you wont do it for long. Why do it in the first place?)
5. Build fail safes
Unlike consistency, which thrives on guilt, shame, and self-flagellation, we want our new system to thrive on self-compassion.
That’s why we’ll build fail safes to avoid the usual hang up after skipping once, which starts a cycle of procrastination.
Use the “never skip twice” principal to your advantage. This is very powerful — allows you to be human and you know in advance that you’ll skip once in a while and that’s okay.
Use the ABC method: If your goal is fitness and hitting the gym persistently. Instead of picking one perfect outcome, break down your outcomes in three tiers:
A: I go to gym, do 100 pushups.
B: I go to gym, do no pushups.
C: I jog around the block.
Even on your lazy days, you can still make progress just by scoring C.
6. Celebrate progress
Don’t just track progress.
Celebrate it while you mark it off your to-do list.
Whenever you finish a micro task, please reward yourself with guilty pleasures. (Enjoy, you son of a bitch, you’ve earned it.)
7. Employ feedback loops
Take a weekly look at what's working and what's not. Adapt your strategy based on your progress.
Ask yourself:
Is it for me?
Can I double the input?
Can I handle the workload?
Am I enjoying the process or not?
Remember, this isn't a "set and forget" microwave meal; it's more like a complex puzzle waiting to be solved.
So, keep tinkering and tweaking until you transform your micro task into an automated behavior. And voila! You are a persistency master.
That’s it! Seven steps.
Persistent progress in action
During my 5-month long writing MIA/AWOL, the guilt monster whispered in my mind sometimes.
You haven’t written in five months! 😠
You should be more consistent!!! 😡
But this time, I saw it differently.
Instead of letting the inner critic bombard me with guilt-bombs, I realized, before stopping, I'd written consistently for eight months! And that's a win.
But when we are trying to be consistent, we don’t allow ourselves such flexibilities. One day skipped and you’re “not consistent”.
Here’s what kept me going for 8 months:
Clear Why: I wanna get better at writing
Micro Task: Publish something once a week
Minimum Viable Expectation: Do it until I enjoy the process
Find My Rhythm
Write when bursts of focus occur in Notes App
Saturday locked for compiling, editing and publishing
Build Fail Safes
Never skip twice
If skipping twice, read 3 non-fiction pieces for momentum
Tracking + Celebrating: As long as I achieved my micro task of publishing once a week, I rewarded myself in various ways.
Final thoughts
Lastly, I welcome you to ditch the daily grind and adopt the power of persistent progress.
I hope this frame of thinking empowers you to move forward, celebrate the journey, forgive yourself, and ultimately achieve your goals.
Don’t forget to apply these mindset shifts 👇
Consistency→ PersistencePerfection→ ProgressMotivation→ Unreliable
Let's rock this, together!
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The parting gift 🎁
Three exciting tracks to help you shift perspective!