New Earth Knowledge

Consistency is most important trait you can have if you want to achieve your potential. 

I know this because I spent my entire 20s suffering from major shiny object syndrome.

I’d jump from this to that every time something new came into my awareness.

I wasn’t finishing what I started.

I was shifting my strategy every five days to try to find some hack that doesn’t exist to set me up for a breakthrough.

It’s tricky, really. It seems like being on the lookout for a newer, better approach would be a good trait.

Yet it’s not. Not always.

This realization led me to a big insight:

Distraction disrupts attraction.

Any deviation in the plan — even if the new plan is valid — inhibits the compound effect from ever setting in, which prevents us from setting a foundation for any sustained, substantial output.

Plus, the more we switch things up after committing, the more we normalize this mentality — one underlined by the chase for instant gratification.

And in the process we prove to the Universe that we aren’t really sure, that we aren’t really willing to work and wait.

We buy into our fleeting desires, often on a whim.

The allure of a small, short-term reward now often outshines the promise an exponential result down the road.

Most people say they’re patient. I thought I was.

But my new definition of patience is measured in decades, not days.

One of my mentors taught me that any legitimate asset takes five years to build, then another five to really become special.

If you aren’t willing to do it for the next decade, don’t start.

And as easy as it is to say we want it, or that we’re willing to hustle, it’s extremely difficult to actually create tunnel vision.

My flaw was, and still is, a fear that I may miss out on some secret that could propel me further and faster than sticking the course on a current choice.

More on that in a second.

It’s also true that new ideas aren’t worth much without consistent action to nurture them.

Anyone can come up with ideas; those are a dime a dozen. Execution is the real secret. Only a small few ever execute.

And, in the end, it’s not so much about which thing you chose.

What matters is choosing to execute on the thing that works — which is often unshiny — and doing it for a long enough time for momentum to build.

Right now, I’m reading essentialism by Greg McKeown.

It talks about cutting out unnecessary fluff to focus on what really matters.

And it dawned on me just how bad most people are at practicing prioritization.

Prioritization is a skill, as is saying ‘no’ to non-essential options which often come disguised as opportunities.

But this is a double-edged sword — here’s where I’ll contradict myself.

Sometimes, a can’t-miss opportunity will coming hurtling into your awareness, tantalizing and tempting your curiosity.

While we shouldn’t get in the habit of jumping ship all the time, we also shouldn’t remain so closed off that we miss obvious gifts in the form of new levers that have potential to produce outsized returns toward our desired end.

So, I think it’s a dance.

It’s a dance of continuous commitment to the overarching plan for a long period while harnessing the ability to be selective about when, where, and how you choose to pivot.

And when you pivot, it won’t be dropping this in lieu of that.

It’ll be using this puzzle piece as a pawn to propel “that” — that which you’ve committed to creating long-term.

When you extrapolate the effect of consistency over time while allowing some space for adaptation, the odds turn dramatically in your favor.

The key to consistency is making it easy and automatic. How?

Consistency is much easier when there’s no separation between what we do and who we are. The goal is to meld with your craft.

Consistency is not something we need to do; it’s who we become in the pursuit of the thing that sets our soul on fire.

In closing, consistency is one of the most neglected and underestimated virtues to building what we most want.

Remember, manifestation of our desires in the physical world works slowly.

One way the Universe hides our creatorship from us in the dense 3D realm is by delaying manifestation and withholding results for a period of time to see how committed we really are to achieving what we say we want.

The way you win is by staying the course… long after you decided to embark upon it.

10,000 hours becomes 100,000 becomes a million.

Then, mastery, expertise, and eventual materialization of your work will all come to a head.

That is when the magic will unfold.

That is where legacies are cemented.

That is divine fulfillment realized through a world-class demonstration of focus, intent, skill, artistry and indeed… love.

Yours in service,

Michael

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