Ep 4 : Streak

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#1 reason people get good at something is a “Streak”.

EXCERPT From The Book “The Power of Subconscious Goal Setting”

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Jerry Seinfeld is probably the most successful comedian in the history of the world. He started out like any other comedian. Late nights working clubs. Hold down another job during the day. Somehow find time to work on your craft in between. It’s a story anyone can relate to.

Comedians work in “bits”. Every joke is a “bit”. And a comedians ability to get it right, remember it and deliver it in the way that has proven to get the best audience reaction is one of the great secrets of comedians. Except it’s not secret. It’s hard work.

The concept of the TV show Seinfeld was a game changer for Jerry. It put him on the map like no other comedian has ever experienced.

Backstage one night, a young software developer named Brad Isaac who was dabbling in comedy approached Jerry for some advice on how to be a better comedian.

Jerry explained to Brad that every January, he would hang a large yearly planner on his wall. Every day that he wrote new material, he would take joy in putting a red ‘X’ over that day. Soon enough, a long chain of red ‘X’s would appear all strung together.

His advice to Brad, “Don’t break the chain”.

In the Netflix documentary, “Jerry Before Seinfeld” you see Jerry sitting in the middle of the road, surrounded by every single “bit” of paper he has ever written. Jerry looks around and says, “Every time I wrote something that worked, I saved it in this accordion folder. Every single thing. And this is it, from 1975 until this morning.”

A streak is when you string together consecutive days of action. It’s that simple.

“Action creates traction. Traction creates attraction.”? – Roger Hamilton

I believe the #1 reason people get good at something is a “Streak”. If you really stop and think about it, what else could it be. You need to practice. You need regular action. You need to be consistent.
If you want healthy teeth, you brush them every day. If you want to be lean and healthy, you simply eat clean every day. If you want to build legs that can run a marathon you run consistently. More days than you don’t.

Here’s a good opportunity to discuss the finer points of streaking. Some streaks are best done every day. Some are not!

I have friends who run every single day. Whilst it might sound impressive and even look good in a Guinness Book of Records somewhere – as a high performance practice, it’s plain dumb. The physical body will only ever achieve truly high performance when ‘rest’ is treated as training. Rest is a very important part of getting in peak condition. In business, you can’t work every single day of the year without taking a holiday – and you shouldn’t.

With physical transformations and achieving goals like Marathon personal bests, etc – it will only happen with the right consistency and rest combined. You still have streaks. But very smart, strategic streaks that lead you naturally to the best results.

Want to stop drinking alcohol? Give up sugar? Drink more water? These are best as a 7 day a week streak. But with some goals, you might choose to spread your actions into a 5 day a week, or 6 day a week streak. Your goal then becomes to string together consecutive weeks of 6 days a week for 48 weeks of the year. Be clear about your action plan up front.

Want to learn to code? Code Monday to Saturday for at least one hour. Be a better salesperson? Present to someone every day, 5 days a week. And if you are struggling to make that happen, you need to do prospecting and marketing 5 to 6 days a week. Want to learn guitar? You get the idea!
No matter what you want to change for yourself in life, if you just applied yourself with consistency – built a streak, you find almost nothing becomes impossible.

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