How to Be Consistent: A Simple Secret to Personal Development

Summary

In this episode of The Mindset Mentor Podcast, Rob Dial discusses the crucial role consistency plays in achieving personal development and success. He introduces the 'Law of 100,' a strategy where one chooses a single keystone habit to practice daily for 100 days. By removing distractions and focusing consistently on this habit, individuals can foster significant personal growth. Dial highlights the importance of overcoming self-doubt and excuses, emphasizing that consistency is the true path to success. Through the story of Jerry Seinfeld and other successful individuals, he illustrates how simple consistent actions can lead to transformative changes over time.

Highlights

• Jerry Seinfeld's secret: Writing jokes consistently every day. 📝
• The 'Law of 100': Do one habit daily for 100 days. 📆
• Keystone habits have a ripple effect on your life. 🌊
• Consistency beats intelligence in achieving success. 🏆
• Turn breakdowns into breakthroughs by staying committed. 🚪

Key Takeaways

• Consistency is the secret sauce to success. 🌟
• Identify your keystone habit that will lead to multiple positive changes. 🎯
• Commit to your chosen habit for 100 days without excuses. 💪
• Remove distractions and focus on personal growth. 🔍
• Even if you don't believe in yourself, taking action is crucial. 🚀

Overview

Consistency is often overlooked but is fundamentally the simplest and most powerful element of personal development. Rob Dial, in this podcast episode, emphasizes that true success is built on habitual actions rather than sheer talent. By adopting what he calls the 'Law of 100,' listeners are encouraged to identify a pivotal habit that can influence various aspects of their lives. This keystone habit, much like the key stone of an arch, supports and enhances surrounding aspects of one's life.

The podcast outlines how to select and commit to a keystone habit for 100 days, a commitment that requires tuning out distractions and possible excuses. Dial draws from Jerry Seinfeld's comedic journey, where a daily practice of writing jokes contributed significantly to his success. This anecdote is paired with the motivational insight that consistent action, even more than intelligence or luck, is the true determinant of enduring success.

Listeners are reminded that, although forming new habits can be as challenging as forging a new trail through a dense forest, persistence is key. Dial likens this process to developing a 'well-worn path' in the brain, making the habit easy over time. With the power of neuroplasticity, anyone can transform their habits and mindset, leading to exponential personal growth over time.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Importance of Consistency In this chapter, the focus is on the significance of consistency as a key factor for success. It's about taking daily actions and developing habits that can significantly alter the direction of one's life. Although the concept is straightforward, the execution is challenging for many people, which is why it's often neglected. The chapter also highlights how Jerry Seinfeld utilized this technique early in his career as a comedian.
• 00:30 - 05:30: The Law of 100 and Keystone Habits The chapter discusses the concept called the 'Law of 100,' which emphasizes focusing on one significant habit that can transform your life. This significant habit is referred to as a 'Keystone habit.' The text briefly mentions an example of a comedian who has become one of the wealthiest due to successfully implementing these principles.
• 05:30 - 11:00: Challenges and Strategies for Developing Consistency The chapter discusses the concept of a 'keystone habit,' likening its importance to the keystone in an arch. In ancient Roman times, the keystone was the central stone holding an arch together, and similarly, a keystone habit is a singular habit that can influence various other areas of one's life. The text suggests that developing one such habit is crucial for creating a domino effect on other behaviors and areas of life.
• 11:00 - 15:00: The Role of Persistence in Success The chapter discusses how adopting the habit of waking up early can become a 'Keystone habit' that contributes significantly to success. It emphasizes that the focus should not be on trying to complete an extensive list of morning activities, but rather on the simple act of waking up early, which can lead to positive changes and improvements in life.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Changing Your Mindset and Habits This chapter discusses the impact of keystone habits, which are small and seemingly simple habits that can lead to significant changes in other areas of life. The example given is waking up early, which can prompt various productive activities throughout the day, such as reading, exercising, or meditating. Emphasizing that finding the right keystone habit for oneself is crucial, the chapter encourages experimenting with different habits to see which one might lead to the most positive changes. It highlights the importance of these habits in transforming one's mindset and overall lifestyle.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Seinfeld's Technique for Consistency The chapter highlights the significance and effects of developing a keystone habit, such as regular exercise. It emphasizes how maintaining a fitness routine can lead to positive changes in other areas of life, such as reducing alcohol consumption, increasing water intake, eating healthier, and improving sleep quality. This domino effect exemplifies how a single consistent habit can lead to holistic lifestyle improvements.
• 25:00 - 30:00: The Journey to Success and the Power of Persistence The chapter titled 'The Journey to Success and the Power of Persistence' discusses the significance of identifying and committing to one keystone habit that can influence other aspects of life. It emphasizes the importance of consistency and perseverance by suggesting that one should focus on this habit or action consistently for 100 days. The narrative advises against limiting this commitment to weekdays only, underscoring the need for dedication every day, such as the example of waking up at 5:00 AM daily.

How to Be Consistent: A Simple Secret to Personal Development Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 today we're going to be talking about a very simple secret to success how to be more consistent how to take action every single day and how to build the habits in your life that will change the direction and course of your life tune in just cuz it's simple doesn't mean it's easy uh it is extremely simple it is extremely important um but it's pretty hard for most people and that's why most people don't do it and I'm also going to teach you how Jerry Seinfeld uses this technique or had used this technique when he was in new comic to
• 00:30 - 01:00 become one of the greatest and wealthiest comedians probably the wealthiest comedian that's ever walked the face of the Earth and what I actually call it is I call it the law of 100 it's very very simple so here's what you need to do okay you need to think to yourself what is the one thing what is the one habit that I need to build in myself that would change my life the most and so what we like to call these as Keystone habits a keystone habit so if you go back and look at what a
• 01:00 - 01:30 keystone was in the ancient uh Roman times a keystone was the stone that was at the very center of an arch the reason why it's the most important stone is because when it's locked in place it locks all of the other stones of the arch in place and what it means is that that one stone affects all of the other stones and so when you're thinking about the one habit that you want to do the reason why it's called a keystone habit is because that one habit affects many other areas of your life it's very simple though is like let's say for
• 01:30 - 02:00 instance you're you decide you know the thing that would make the biggest difference in my life is that if I woke up early now waking up early one day like most people they say I'm going to do a wake up and have a morning routine and so I'm going to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and I'm going to meditate and I'm going to read and I'm going to go for a run and I'm going to work out and I'm going to do yoga and I'm going to do this and this and this and they have like 17 things they need to do that's not your Keystone habit your Keystone habit would literally just be waking up at 5:00 in
• 02:00 - 02:30 the morning every single day that's it because when you wake up one morning you might decide you know what I feel like reading today and you just read a little bit and then you wake up at 5:00 another day and you're like you know what I have a lot of energy today I'm going to go for a run and then it turns into going for a run and then it might be meditating one day and it might be something else another day but what happens is that one Keystone habit affects so many other areas of your life and that's what you want to find so for some people waking up early tends to be a keystone habit for some people uh going in and working out every single
• 02:30 - 03:00 day tends to be a keystone happy because you know all you have to do is go into the gym you do your workout that's it and as long as you get the workout done that's your Keystone habit completed but what other areas of your life does it affect well after a while you might say you know what I've been working out so much I'm G to stop drinking as much you know what I've been working out so much I'm going to start drinking more water you know what I've been working out so much I'm going to eat a little bit healthier you know what I've been working out so much I'm going to get some better sleep and it affects many other areas of your life and so what you want to do is this with the law of 00
• 03:00 - 03:30 you find one thing that is a keystone habit for you that is going to affect many other areas of your life and you decide that thing that habit that you're going to create that action that you need to take in your business whatever it might be what is that one action that you're going to to take decide it right now we're going to do this together and then you do that one thing for 100 days straight that's it now I don't say like okay wake up at 5:00 in the morning only Monday through Friday no wake up at 5:00
• 03:30 - 04:00 in the morning every single day for 100 days if that's what you want to do work out or at least get into the gym or do some form of physical fitness every single day for the next 100 days make a 100 cold calls in your business every single day for the next 100 days whatever it is you identify that one thing and you do it every single day here's the key to it you're probably not going to be able to do it with your current schedule which means things are going to need to change your schedule's going to need to change you're going to
• 04:00 - 04:30 need to figure out how to get yourself more time to do this and you are going to need to change you're going to need to figure out and so it's not going to be super comfortable but it's something that you need to do and what I recommend here's what I really recommend is disappear for a 100 days and what I mean by disappearing is like don't leave your family like obviously if you have things that you have to do with your family do your family stuff but disappear from all of your friends for a 100 days just say hey I'm really working myself the next 100 days I'll see in a few months
• 04:30 - 05:00 disappear from being on social media disappear from uh from everything that you're you know your social life whatever it is you can always go back to it but what you're really trying to do is you're really trying to take 100 days to solely focus on you so if you have a family obviously you have familial obligations you've got to do that stuff but if you're and but if you're single like just disappear just do whatever it is that you do for work come home and freaking work on yourself if you're trying to drive a drive it your your new
• 05:00 - 05:30 business that you just started well then go to go to work whatever is you got to do during your day job and then come home and disappear into your work for 100 days because here's what's real crazy when you disappear for just a 100 days and you do one thing consistently every single day for 100 days you're very different with a different set of habits in 100 days so it's super simple it's not hard I told you it's very simple but it's it's it's not hard but it is difficult for people step one is you decide what the action is and step two is you do it every single day for
• 05:30 - 06:00 100 days don't allow yourself to make all of the BS excuses that come up cuz some of you guys are like yes this is awesome I can do it and there's a portion of people listening right now they're like I don't know if I can do that but Rob oh but Rob you don't know my life oh but you don't know my schedule right so don't make excuses don't self-sabotage do that one thing every single day for 100 days and let me tell you a few reasons why this is extremely important number one over my lifetime I've been able to develop some really great relationships with people who have have been quite successful
• 06:00 - 06:30 right what I have tend what I've found out with them is that successful people are not that smart they're not smarter than everybody else the whatever success means to you whether that's great parents or whether that's tons of money or whether it's great business owners or the happiest people you can find whatever success means to you successful people are the most consistent people they're not smarter they're not uh they don't have better willpower most of the time they've just decided to be consistent they wake up every single day
• 06:30 - 07:00 and they do the things that they need to do in order to get them from where they are to where they want to be right someone who's really wealthy they worked really consistently they didn't give up someone who is in incredible shape if that's what success means to you they were very consistent in the way that they worked out and the way they ate someone who's extremely calm and centered and peaceful they were very consistent in being mindful in meditating and doing breath work and being present they were just very very consistent consistent success comes from
• 07:00 - 07:30 consistency and consistency compounds over time and so you might think oh it's only 100 days but every every single day that you do it you get a little bit better and now when you go into so if you do this thing for seven days right you're going to be better in seven days than you are today so when you go into that thing seven days from today and you do it again that little bit better version of you is now doing it that success compounds over time so the most successful people are just the most
• 07:30 - 08:00 consistent the people who fail the most failure just comes from giving up literally you can only fail at something when you give up at something you can't fail if you just don't give up if you decide I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this until I die you can't you can't lose if you decide this is the business that I'm starting and I'm going to do this eventually a year 2 years 3 years 5 years 10 years down the road you will get to whatever quote unquote success is for you you just just can't give up so step one decide what the
• 08:00 - 08:30 action is step two do it every single day for 100 days and let me explain why this is important to you and the way that your brain actually works let me give you an analogy okay your brain is like a forest and you know if you've ever walked through a forest and there's it's really dense and you have to have a machete to kind of chop through stuff but every once in a while you're walking through a forest and there is a path that you can see that other people have walked down over and over and over and over and over again and because it's been trampled on and walked so much it's
• 08:30 - 09:00 a lot easier to walk down that path right well some of us have habits that we don't really want anymore but it's very easy it's like walking down that path where we're walking down that path of oh we've hit the snooze button so many times it's just very easy to stay in that habit of just hitting the snooze button and not waking up when we really wanted to because that is just a habit it's a Well warn path in the brain that we have what we're doing and what we're doing in this moment we're talking about doing something with the LW 100 the next
• 09:00 - 09:30 100 days is about taking out the machete and just hacking a new way through the forest for the next 100 days it's going okay you know this waking up thing I'm not good at it if this is you know the example I'm giving if this is what you decide this waking up thing I'm not good at it but you know what I'm going to do knowing that it's going to be a struggle I'm going to take out my machete in my brain and I'm going to hack a new way in the forest and I will get aggressive at making sure this habit that I know will change my life is something that I build
• 09:30 - 10:00 into my daily practice your brain will eventually adapt what is foreign and not comfortable to you right now will become easy as time goes on you get to a point where if waking up early is the thing that you want to work on where it might be really hard the first week to wake up at 5:00 a.m. or 5:30 whatever time you say you want to wake up it's hard because it's something completely different the same way that it's really hard to just hack away at a force with a machete but the more you do it consistently day
• 10:00 - 10:30 after day after day the more this path becomes well worn and by the end of 100 days if you do it 100 days in a row you're probably going to be waking up before your alarm goes off that's how you turn something into a habit that's the beautiful thing about being a human is we have something called neuroplasticity which means that you can change your brain whenever you want to your brain your habits who you are is not set in stone you can change these at any moment it just takes consistency and it takes a lot of effort you've got to put a lot of effort into it and so
• 10:30 - 11:00 the way that that Jerry Seinfeld used this and I wrote this about wrote about this in my book level up um he used this where there was a uh it's called the Seinfeld calendar there was a young comic that came up to him one day and he was they were in the back behind the stage and he's like Jerry you know I'm I'm a young comic I want to know what did you do when you were in my shoes to get you to be better and he said well what I did was I I got a big huge calendar I put it up on the wall and I would force myself to write jokes every single day he's like someday days I wrote good jokes most days I wrote
• 11:00 - 11:30 crappy jokes but I wanted to just build the muscle of being consistent in writing jokes every single day and what I would do is as soon as I was done writing jokes I would go to the calendar and I had a red marker and I would put an x on that day for getting that day taken care of and then the next day I'd do the same thing I'd write the jokes and I put an x on that calendar the next day I put an x on that calendar and eventually you have a calendar that has a string of x's that are going across it and you're 10 days in the last thing that you want to do is break that that
• 11:30 - 12:00 that consistency that you have so the consistency actually starts to become a little bit addicting to you you don't want to break it and once again these things are not really hard like to do this stuff is not hard to wake up early is not really that hard to decide to go to the gym is not really that hard whatever it is that to make a 100 cold calls is really not that hard whatever it is that you decide that you need to do success is really not that hard it's all so simple there's an action the action needs to be taken I need to take
• 12:00 - 12:30 the action it's very simple but what ends up happening we think too much and we make it really freaking hard we make it so hard on oursel I always tell people if if I had the opportunity like if I had the if it was possible for there's a brain you know switch on the side of your brain for me to turn off the thinking part of your brain The Fear Part of your brain the amydala that puts out all the fears and all of the limiting beliefs and I could just flip a switch and just turn it off for a little while everybody would just take action
• 12:30 - 13:00 cuz taking action isn't hard how do we make it hard by thinking too much by fears by limiting beliefs you just have to be committed and not give up the most successful people that I know are committed they're not the smartest people they weren't born rich actually majority of them weren't born rich at all I actually I don't think any of them were born rich 80% of millionaires in America were born middle class or lower class into lower class families so it's not like they were just given the perfect life they just decided that hard work and dedication was going to be something that they were going to build
• 13:00 - 13:30 into themselves the the beautiful thing about being a human is that you could have a brand new life in 12 months you could have a brand new life in three years five years like what if I told you if you worked really hard at something every single day for the next three years you would be guaranteed to make $5 million guaranteed like there's no doubt absolutely 100% you're making $5 million would you go for it and not give up absolutely if you are guaranteed 100%
• 13:30 - 14:00 guaranteed would you yes the problem is you think too much you think about oh well what if this doesn't work out what if I'm not good enough what if I'm not smart enough you got to learn to turn that part of your brain off and even though you don't believe in yourself and even though you've got fears and even though you've got limiting beliefs as we all do you're still going to do it you don't have to believe in yourself in order to take action belief is not a prerequisite to take an action but what if you just started and you didn't stop people give up too often and they don't real realize how close they are to
• 14:00 - 14:30 a breakthrough they'll have breakdowns and they're like I can't do this anymore after a breakdown usually comes a breakthrough and most people give up after a breakdown oh they think it's not for me this is a sign I'm not supposed to do this what if it was just a different flip of your mind of like okay this this breakdown right here this is the universe testing me testing me to see if I really want it I'm not going to give up because think about this think about your life how many times have you given up on yourself how many times have you given up on yourself over and over
• 14:30 - 15:00 how many times you say you're going to do that workout plan you're going to stick with it and you give up on yourself how many times you said you're going to start a business and you didn't do it how many times you said you're going to do something and you just didn't do it over and over and over and over and over again what if this from this moment on you just decided when I start something I will follow through the past version of me gave up all the time the past version me yeah didn't follow through on anything but I'm not going to be that person anymore the new version to me will make a decision to do something and we'll take
• 15:00 - 15:30 action on that thing I just will not give up on myself anymore where would you be if you didn't give up on that thing five years ago that you thought was so amazing for you probably way further ahead than you are right now right okay well if that's the case where could you be in 5 years from today if you decided what it is that you wanted to do and you didn't give up on yourself because it's not going to happen immediately like you don't go to the gym and then look in the mirror and have an you know six-pack doesn't happen that way great things take time it takes time to build yourself in the
• 15:30 - 16:00 person that you want it takes time to build your mindset into into be the the the type of mindset that you want it takes time to build your your body into the type of body that you want success doesn't happen overnight it's like that Chinese bamboo Story the Chinese bamboo story where you you plant a seed and you have to water it and and give it sun and take care of it for six years before it ever comes out of the soil six years nothing and then in the sixth year it grows up to 80 feet in 6 weeks up to 2 feet a day sometimes that's a lot how
• 16:00 - 16:30 that's a lot of the the way that success is you don't see anything for a while and then boom hockey stick moment it takes off if you just decided to do something and not give up you could be a completely different person in a year so that's what I got for you for today's episode if you love this episode please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in at Rob dial Jr r o d i a ljr and then once again if you're in the United States or Canada and you want to get some inspirational texts and videos from me uh a few times a week go ahead and text me right now 512- 5893 05 once
• 16:30 - 17:00 again 512- 58 9305 and with that I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode make it your mission make somebody else's day better I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day