Clint Murphy  00:09

This quote from Dwayne The Rock Johnson sticks with me, it’s how I live my life. Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come. Here’s how I approach it. 

Clint Murphy  00:29

To be great, embrace the suck. Embrace the suck long enough to be good. Be good long enough until you become great. To go from suck to good to great use consistency, whether positive or negative, consistency compounds.

Clint Murphy  00:52

James Clear, illustrated this beautifully by comparing someone who improves 1% every day versus someone who becomes 1% worse each day. 

Clint Murphy  01:06

You may be wondering, how can you be getting worse. So let me give you an example. You’ve graduated high school in the best shape of your life at 150 pounds and each year you gain 1% body weight, which doesn’t seem like a big deal. You’ll cut back when you’re done university, you have your career on track, the kids start school, kids finish school, you retire. As each milestone ticks by you come up with a future milestone before you’ll get things back under control. In the meantime, when you’re ready to retire at 50. Your weight has climbed to nearly 205 pounds. Consistency and the power of compounding in work against you. But they can also work in your favor. 

Clint Murphy  01:52

Once you understand this, nothing will stop you. People often ask how they can show up consistent if they’ve never done it. They seek motivation. But it’s not about motivation. 

Clint Murphy  02:04

It’s about discipline and building what I call your get shit done muscle. Your get shit done muscle is built by doing hard things consistently. Here’s the trick though, hard things to you and me are different. And you need to start where you are, not where I am, not where the person you follow on social media is. You need to start where you are. So if you’re new to building your get shit done muscle. That starting place needs to be as small as possible and your increases as you progress each month will be as small as they need to be to ensure that you’re successful. 

Clint Murphy  02:45

Let’s work through an example together. So when you start, I want you to pick an activity that you’re going to do every single day at the same time in the same place and in the exact same way. Let’s take an example. You’ll wake up at 6:15am every day and write a checkmark in a book beside your bed. It may sound simple, but what you’re doing is you’re teaching yourself that you’re someone who can complete a challenge. You’re teaching yourself that you’re someone who can be consistent, someone who can win and the more you teach it, the stronger that feeling becomes. When you’re done your first 30 Day Challenge, you’re going to step it up, your next challenge will be slightly harder than the first. 

Clint Murphy  03:35

Let’s use a practical case – every day at 6:15am. in month one, you’ll put your running shoes on, you’ll get outside. In month two, you’re going to walk around the block. In month three, you’re going to walk one mile every day. In month four, we’re going for two miles. Month five, three miles. Month six, you’re getting a full five mile walk every day. So within six months, you could have gone from being a couch potato who doesn’t believe they can complete challenges to a superstar who’s walking five miles every morning. You’ll be healthier, fitter and more confident than you’ve ever been. And nothing will stop you from ramping that up over the coming years. 

Clint Murphy  04:18

Even more importantly, nothing will stop you from realizing that what you’ve now done for that activity, you can do in the financial area of your life. You can do in the wealth area, you can do in the emotional area, the spiritual area, you can apply this technique to every area of your life. 

Clint Murphy  04:36

Something that that brings up for me: the power of streaks. They’ve been my answer. They don’t have to be yours, but they have been mine. In December 2016, I was out of shape. My boss laughed at me when I mentioned running at a lunchtime conversation. The next week, I started running streak over the next one and a half years I ran an average of about five miles a day. I lost 40 pounds and I completed a 50 mile, 80km ultra marathon. Streaks are the easiest way to prove to yourself you are something. Runners run, writers write, creators create. Someone told me I wasn’t a runner. I showed them I’m whatever I want to be. The key to streaks is you make a promise to yourself and you keep it. There’s no greater way for you to prove you’re capable of being whoever you want to be. And it’s the greatest way to build your get shit done muscle. 

Clint Murphy  05:32

Streaks can but may not always be a superpower for someone with ADHD like me. For some, it’s easy to do something a few days per week, I refer to these people as having dimmer switches. For others like me, I refer to myself as on or off. If I’m doing the streak, I’m able to do it every single day for years, I’m also able to not do it for years. You have to know yourself and you have to act accordingly. 

Clint Murphy  05:58

With consistency. Here’s some things you need to know:

Clint Murphy  06:01

Exponential versus incremental. The average person thinks about life in a linear and incremental way. If I added 500 followers in January, I’ll add 500 followers in February. When we sat around the table back at New Year’s 2021. My wife two sons and I predicted where my Twitter following would be one year later, they each ranged from a guess of 25,000 to 40,000. Thinking the growth would continue incrementally. I thought I was being aggressive with a target of 50,000 and a 75,000 stretch goal. We finished the year at 207,000 followers. We had all thought incrementally. When you’re consistent for long enough periods of time, the compounding leads to exponential growth. You’ve all seen it, the hockey stick example: it goes slow until it goes fast. You just have to keep going long enough for it to go fast for it to get there. You have to embrace the suck. When you start you will suck but that’s okay. You can’t be afraid to be embarrassed. You have to be willing to suck. Every time you write a post, you go for a run or you create content, you will improve. 

Clint Murphy  07:17

When I started as an accountant I sucked. 15 years later, I was a CFO. When I began triathlon, I sucked. Two years later, I completed an Ironman. When I started writing on Twitter, I sucked. Four years later, I’m doing all right on the platform, Be willing to suck long enough to get good. 

Clint Murphy  07:37

It brings us to the two minutes, there will be days you don’t want to keep the streak going. That’s why I recommend setting a maintainable minimum achievement. For example, my minimum run was one and a half miles even though I averaged five miles a day. Use the two minute rule. Run for two minutes. Read for two minutes. Write for two minutes. Research shows committing to two minutes often leads to more time spent. It’s how you get started. Get your shoes on and get out the door. Once you’re out the door, you’re going to run do it daily ish. I’ve always loved this one since I heard about it from Seinfeld. 

Clint Murphy  08:20

The last one I’m going to leave you with is this. What it means is you may not do it each and every day. But you’re going to do it regularly and you’re going to commit to one important thing. You never want to miss two days in a row. When you miss one and you get back on your maintaining daily-ish. When you miss two, you’re starting to break the habit. We want to keep the habit. So if you miss Monday, do it Tuesday, commonly called the two day rule. Consistency in all of this is key. It’s about showing up doing the work and embracing the suck long enough to see results. 

Clint Murphy  09:01

Remember, it’s about the journey, not the destination. Stay consistent, stay disciplined and don’t give up on yourself. The results my friends will come. 

Clint Murphy  09:16

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