Who was it who said that the secret to success in any field is to keep on doing the same thing over and over again? I think I might have said it myself on occasions.
Of course if you keep doing the wrong thing over and over again you are merely carving the wrong thing in stone. The aim is to do the right thing over and over again.
One of the reasons we don’t succeed is because doing the right thing over and over again is boring. Yet it’s essential to any form of success.
Let’s just have a look at some of the ways this works out:
If you exercise at least three times a week, you will get fitter.
If you don’t exercise, you won’t get fitter.
If you practise a foreign language every day, you will get better at it.
If you don’t practise the language, you won’t get better at it.
If you tidy your office every day, you will have a tidy office.
If you don’t tidy your office, you won’t have a tidy office.
If you write 1,000 words of your book every day, you will get it finished.
If you don’t write your book, you won’t get it finished.
And so on. You could no doubt think of thousands of examples.
As I’ve said many times before, the secret to success in any endeavour is consistent, regular, focused attention.
I say in my book Secrets of Productive People:
Are you someone who’s tried to learn a foreign language and failed? If you are, you belong to the vast majority of people in this country. As a result, do you tell yourself “I’m no good at languages”? If you do, you are fooling yourself. The real reason you failed is not because you are no good at languages, but because you are no good at being consistent.