Consistency is dubbed the key to long-term success but we all have at some point struggled with lack of consistency. In this program, Daniel and Pouya discuss how we can remain consistent in the pursuit of our goals and gain streaks that are actually lasting.
Daniel's Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danmolgan/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Danmolgan
LinkedIn: ht...
Consistency is dubbed the key to long-term success but we all have at some point struggled with lack of consistency. In this program, Daniel and Pouya discuss how we can remain consistent in the pursuit of our goals and gain streaks that are actually lasting.
Daniel's Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danmolgan/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Danmolgan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-molgan-41812352/
Pouya's Social:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pouyalj/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pouyalj
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pouyalajevardi/
Episode Transcript...
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Wed, 5/12 8:42AM • 36:53
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
consistency, streak, reward, days, called, gamification, duolingo, discipline, pandemic, people, literally, consistent, life, process, trophy, exercise, addicted, book, reinforcement, maintain
SPEAKERS
Pouya LJ, Dan
Pouya LJ 00:13
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to yet another episode of The BTP podcast as always joined by Daniel Morgan, how's it going? Man?
Dan 00:22
What up man? How's it going miss you a lot, buddy. How you doing? How is life I thought Canada's been shut down completely, thanks to pretty much unfriendly neighbor, which is called United States. Sorry, just didn't happen, unfortunately, to give you the vaccines there. But overall, I'm glad to be here with you, man, life is great. And fortunately, we are seeing as I expected, a much more optimistic, basically summer, we're getting closer to it and couldn't be any happier. We're hearing some good news. Unfortunately, of course, there are still parts of the world that are now suffering heavily, namely, India is one of them. But overall, we are seeing grain Oh, it was announced three days ago, basically, that we have now reached a plateau worldwide. In the pandemic. This means that from here on end, the numbers both in terms of infections and death will only basically come down over the coming, let's say 10 months or so. And that means that we're basically as was very intelligently predicted by Dr. Fauci. By the end of 2021, q4, hopefully, life gradually begins to get back to normal, and we're very happy about that matter. So that's pretty good. This means open borders, open borders means more flights and travels, it means more business. It means just pure happiness. So glad to be here with you, man. How are you doing? How's life in Canada?
Pouya LJ 01:41
No, that's good. Um, I think we're all looking forward to that pure happiness section of the argument.
Dan 01:49
We've been waiting for too damn long, man. God dammit. It was too tough.
Pouya LJ 01:53
It was too tough. Yeah, no, it was long. And I think I think the part that was long was probably, I guess everybody, like most people would say the same thing. But it was probably the toughest part for me, because, you know, endurance is that is the judge.
Dan 02:10
Imagine you are technically an ambivert. This means that you have as much introversion as you have extraversion. Imagine someone who has been diagnosed as 99.9% extroverted will experience this pandemic. Oh, my
Pouya LJ 02:25
gosh, yeah, no, I know. It's, it's definitely, definitely tough. And, yeah, the good thing is, I think, if we're not jinxing it, I think that the hump of the whole thing is behind us. So we are
Dan 02:40
Yeah, we are we are rolling down worst is behind us. That's the good part. The worst is behind us everywhere worldwide, because this issue cannot be solved. If I don't know just the United States gets fully vaccinated this issue that worldwide. And this means that so long as there are nations that are way behind, this is not just going to jeopardize their well being but the entire global community. So this issue can really be resolved. When this issue is resolved International. I mean, China was way out of this many months ago, but they're still not living normally. So until and unless all nations are basically on par with this, we cannot really call it over because it's a pandemic. It's a global issue.
Pouya LJ 03:18
No, that makes a lot of sense. And that's, I think, absolutely valid. And hope. Look, as you said, hopefully by the end of 2022 sorry. 2021 Oh my God, I'm still in the old calendar. By the end of
Dan 03:32
- That's how we are. Like, imagine like five years from now like 2020 it's like, no Sonny's over we're past that. And it's all good. It's all good. Right?
Pouya LJ 03:44
Exactly. So yeah, really
Dan 03:46
traumatized by the experiences
Pouya LJ 03:48
like that. I know I Amen. But anyway, so by the end of this year, hopefully, we are going to experience some resemblance of normalcy at a worldwide level as you said, and until then, we keep looking, keep keeping our audience up to date on the subject, but today we're going to talk about something slightly different. But it is I guess, important actually coming out of the pandemic, and that is Right, right. And that is how to keep up our our consistency so I'll give you an example I will sometimes start working on a project and you know you have good days that you really on on task you really feel like it and you're achieving things your mental capacities up or physical capacity depending on your project. But there are days of course, we all experienced this that are not so much optimal and you have this you know feeling of dragging yourself if you will and then the natural question is okay, this is completely detrimental to your process progress because you have so many of those good days and and many days are average or below So, but you need to keep the consistency because you want to achieve your goal. And the question is, how would you basically keep that up? In spite of all of those average or below average or outright terrible days? That is my question to you.
Dan 05:17
First of all, I want to thank you for your overdramatic, you know, description, like literally, I just imagined he basically poo Jake's literally dragging himself out of the bed as he crawls, and the saliva is drooling out of his mouth, like God got to do this gut thing again, like, I kind of imagined that. But let's be honest,
Pouya LJ 05:37
believe me how, believe me, that picture is closer to reality than you imagine.
Dan 05:43
Exactly, I wanted to tell you that as well. Like, unfortunately, this is the pandemic, this really became the norm. I mean, just heard the news from New York Times about all these companies that are now trying to profit from losing all the pounds that they have actually gained with a pandemic. So we've really been living very, in a very unhealthy manner. People call it healthy. But I think in the process of preventing illness, we have actually abandoned health completely, both mentally, psychologically, socially, and, of course, physically. But what you're saying, unfortunately, happens to a lot of us. And I really believe that the key issue here is knowing why these situations occur in the first place, how we can prevent them from happening, and why consistency, as you pointed out, is so important. You see, that's the the main issue. First of all, the problem with consistency is not something that is limited to the confines of let's say, a pandemic or a global crisis. This is a basic fundamental human issue. I mean, we haven't had this problem, if you look at your life, I mean, the pandemic just started last year. So it hasn't been just the pandemic itself. And if you look back, or, you know, history, realize we've had problems with lack of consistency throughout our lives, whether it was in, you know, high school, whether it was in college, and somebody matters. So the problem with that is, we humans generally are wired to be more concerned about the present moment, we have a present bias, if you will, as a species. And I talked earlier about this, basically, on social media, because once we understand our very fabric as a human being, and understand that we are designed in a way that we are rather very unstable by nature, I mean, just if we just miss our sleep for one night, just imagine what it does. Research has proven things far less as basically dramatic and far more subtle can affect the way we think and make decisions. For example, the amount of glucose in your bloodstream, the amount of hormones are you today getting high testosterone or low testosterone. So gentlemen, if you're a lady, is the estrogen progesterone going up or coming down, these little changes in your home analogy is definitely going to change the way you feel. Which is why if we want to leave things to be done by how we feel, we almost never, ever finished a project. That is why we as a species, fundamentally need leaders. Because basically, what the job of a leader really is, is to just keep people going and pushing when everybody else has, you know, perhaps gotten tired, or they have forgotten the goals. And that is why leadership is rather a very difficult, basically the responsibility because the leader himself or herself, is also a human being subject to all of those, you know, things we just mentioned. However, the good thing about this issue is that we all can learn the skill of consistency, like it's like anything else, like a muscle? Yes, no one is born with the capacity, I don't know, to benchpress 200 pounds, I don't know, 12 reps, that's not going to be like nobody's born with that capacity, we have to learn it. And I believe that consistency while influenced by our childhood, upbringing, level of education, and DNA and biology, still could be learned and improved for the most part. And that is why I believe it's incredibly important to learn that if we want to get things done, we better learn to basically toughen the muscles of consistency. Because if we just want to let our feelings run the show, we almost never get any task that is long term or midterm done. Basically, it's just simply not possible.
Pouya LJ 09:30
Now, that makes a lot of sense. And I think the part you mentioned about the leaders is, and that's exactly that's why makes the job of a leader extremely difficult. Like, I mean, let's go to the extreme. Let's say you're I don't know, let's say president of a country, let's say President of the United States, and then you're dealing with international crises well, such as COVID, I suppose, but what they can't really say I'm not in mood today.
Dan 09:57
You know what I mean? Today, come on me. Don't want to just solve the problem. I mean, give me a break for five days, God dammit, man, people are gonna die, I'm gonna come back, we'll see what happens. That's not possible. And again, this is not limited to leadership and politics as part of the same thing, leadership and a team and a group and a business and enterprise, all of these things because ultimately, the leaders job, pretty much if you want to, like, you know, avoid all the sugar coating your team or the entire nation towards the goal. Even during those days when the team or the nation says now I don't feel like it are all the world is coming to an end Oh, apocalypses here, right. So for that reason we need them. However, I still believe that inside every follower, there is a leader. And good nations, just like good teams are made of the people who not only have leaders, but also the followers themselves are capable of practicing some leadership. That's called self discipline. So anytime any person uses the practice of discipline, he or she is a leader in that situation, even if he or she has a boss or a manager or whatever. So we all can learn this skill, it's just learnable. It's not easy nor fun, which is why I also stated that that push by, you know, from the top, but usually we all can learn it. And that is why I believe that consistency should be taken very seriously. Because without consistency, almost no task will get done. We need that inner motivation, we have to persuade ourselves and understand without basically consistency, there cannot be any results, we have no choice. It's kind of like, you know, when you have to take that, you know, medication, you just don't like to taste, you're gonna want to planet, okay, every eight hours or so, Oh, my gosh, I go now send an alarm here, which you got to do it because you gotta get the job done. For that reason, I believe it is incredibly important, not only for the leader to keep pushing people, but the followers themselves to practice leadership within their own basically tasks responsibilities.
Pouya LJ 12:06
Very well. So I think that Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually. And, yeah, so organization wise, that's, that's, that's one aspect of all of this. But there's also another aspect that you're on a very day to day basis, like you I know. So let's actually bring it to a practical examples, because because I know you have consistency in a few few subjects as least as such as, you know, physical activity, bodybuilding, you know, going to the gym, also language learning, like you have these streaks hours, right, using different apps such as Duolingo, etc. So exactly what what is for, for lack of a better word, and in the hopes that I'm not looking too cliche, but what is your secret? Essentially?
Dan 12:56
That's right, well, first of all, you've pointed out two things, which is exercise, and basically Duolingo, which I do daily, but the truth of the matter is, I have straits in pretty much every area of my life, many of which are not known, even sometimes to myself, but it's just like a habit, you see, I really believe that it's all your life is a result of your habits. And your habits oftentimes, are the ones that drive. So honestly speaking, there's no real secret other than creating the habit, of course, I gotta be honest with our audience, I have basically spent many years learning the concept of NLP or neuro linguistic programming. Now, I gotta be honest with you guys. If you know NLP, it's a lot easier to change your emotional associations with things that will give you motivation. But nobody has to be an NLP expert to be able to motivate themselves or have consistency. But if I want to give you the ultimate secret, everything that we do on a regular basis comes down to a reward and punishment. So the key to staying consistent in any task, whether it is to do your Mandarin Chinese practice, or Andrew lingo, I don't know for 500 days straight, or whether it is to go to the gym every single day, even if it's raining outside or don't feel like or you're sick, or trying to keep certain amount of basically customers on the pipeline to make sure you call them on a regular basis to get the business or to visit. For example, let's say one of my streaks in real estate is to contact a certain number of homeowners, and to offer them a price below the market price every single week. So like if my target is like 10 properties per app per week, I do this. However, I got to give you a little bit of a secret here and it's called rewarding yourself. You see, any time I engage in maintaining, for example, a streak in any activity, whether it is to you know, to go to the gym, whether it is to contact the customer, whether it is to I don't know, perhaps do my exercises or whatever it is at the end of that practice. And by the way, we use the sentence training people as well as animals Believe in your own eye, this technique is used all the time, I reward myself. Now that reward could come in variety of shapes. So as I keep my, for example, daily streak in my exercise, I stay forever, literally, I make a plan for like, for every seven days, when I maintain my exercise, I'm going to have a cheat day where I'm gonna have to Pete says, and I'm going to just enjoy, right, and I literally reward myself. I also have a journal, a gold journal, in which I reward my actions and streets, and I keep track of them. For example, right now, in this month journal, I know that I kept my streak on a daily basis with my Chinese every single day. But I was somehow a little bit as somehow not quite serious with my French, for example, right? So I journal my day and my goals and my habits. You see, when you journal is something we call this process gamification. And gamification is used by gaming, or basically, again, developers and gaming companies to make millions of people literally addicted to their favorite game on a daily basis. I'm I mean, right now, every single one of us who are right now listening to this program, we have some things we have a daily streak on. I'm pretty sure if you're listening to us right now you're, you know, online savvy, and you probably love social media, which means pretty much everyone who listens to this show has at least one daily streak is called Facebook or Instagram. If you're writing and listening, the chances are you have subconsciously maintained probably 300 plus days of straight on Instagram, for example, you got to check that thing that's called making something addictive. So guess what, I have studied the science of addiction and how gamification works to make users sometimes in a very unethical manner, addicted. So I'm pretty sure that Facebook and many other social and social media platforms are using some unethical ways to addict. They're basically users. And I use the exact same principles to literally get myself addicted to good things. For example, every audio book or book that I finish, I give myself a trophy for that. And I literally have used I have basically copied, I ripped off the trophy system that is used in a top gaming companies. For example, if you're a, you know, Playstation gamer, there's this system called trophies, which is a made of bronze, silver, gold and platinum. So you get the Platinum pretty much just like the biggest trophy you can get for getting old trophies in one game, right? Let here's one of my secrets to all my audience. today. I have a real life trophy system that I have ruthlessly ripped off from Sony, and I'm using it in my real life. I'm not kidding you. So on my to do list, there's a set of goals, I have associated every streak with a specific trophy. So if it's a very easy one, like doing 15 minutes of Mandarin Chinese, I give myself a bronze trophy for doing that. If it is a little bit harder and requires me to go through five languages in one day, I give myself a silver finishing a book in less than one week, I give myself a gold trophy. And this little silly gamified system. And I even literally level up myself based on my performance. Just Just for the record. Right now my level is 233 based on my streaks tissue, right? So this little silly games that I play, which I have, of course, I haven't really made that up, I actually learned this from my teachers and mentors, because they have their own similar versions of rewarding themselves. These are systems designed to reward you. And the brain is wired this way. When a certain activity gets repeatedly rewarded, especially if the activity is hard to do. The brain suddenly releases dopamine, as soon as the process is accomplished. And that dopamine rush is extremely addictive dies, I have reached out on a streak of many hundreds of almost two years in the streets on Duolingo. Because quite frankly speaking, I will find it much harder to miss my streak than not to actually go with a streak. Why? Because now I have been literally addicted to the process. Because I know that for every single day that I am going to finish my straight, I will be rewarded somehow. So the brain learns Oh, yes, it's a hard process, you get the reward. Dopamine kicks in. And this process after about 21 days becomes highly addictive. For the same reason I am addicted to exercising if I had a long flight one and I miss my exercise, I will feel much worse than if I actually do this. I was telling the story in one of my seminars. I was actually because I had a very long international flight. I was doing push ups with the permission of the flight attendant during the flight I just couldn't wait anymore. I was like, come on, man. I gotta do it. And of course it's caused a huge scene. Obviously people taking photos and videos. It was a mess, but I had to do it. And I was like now I need something to climb on. I got to do my basically push ups. Do that. Come on, sir, please sit down, and all that stuff, right. So what I'm really saying I have the same thing for every book that I finished and I finish an average of one book per week. Again, my, the books that I finish are usually all nonfiction, I do not consider, I don't know, reading Harry Potter to be certainly growth reading. So when I'm saying reading, I'm talking to like, boring type of reading, I'm talking about like, really scientific type of books, business type of books that kind of looks at you really don't want to read on, you know, let's say, on your vacation. And but the reason is very simple, because I am basically making myself addicted to the process through reinforcement and reward. So if you want to do that for yourself, anytime you want to have any good habits, whether it is to exercise regularly, to do a certain number of calls, as a salesperson, or whatever it is, you need to learn to reward yourself, that reward is very important at work comes in many forms. I use all of them. But there are basically two main types personal and social. So I actually very, you know, unapologetically, I make a public announcement of my streets every I don't know, one year or so. Because that social feedback actually, itself acts as a reinforcement. But given the person that the fact that we cannot rely on social enforcement all the time, I rely mainly on personal forms of reporting, which often comes in forms of rewarding myself, like my exercise every seven days of street and exercise means I get to eat to pee says on the weekends, that's one form of reinforcing. And in other ways, whether it is for example, language, learning, whether it is anything else, so if you want to get good at something, and you want to maintain consistency, understand your discipline cannot get you through all the time, because your willpower will never last. So I never rely on willpower. It wasn't like can you probably are the God of consistency, because you have so much willpower? Of course not. The reason is not that I have, you know, I'm still a human being like everybody else. I'm not a robot. I'm not a Google, I'm not, I don't know what Siri, I'm a human being. And I go through the same ups and downs, basically, as all other people. However, once you love something, and you're addicted to it, it is no longer difficult to do for me. missing out on Duolingo is like somebody who was hooked on social media not to have access to his or her phone for one week, that person will go berserk and crazy right? Here. That's what most people do wrong, if you like, the key to consistency is to make myself do what I hate. Yeah, well guess what willpower doesn't last, not for too long, eventually, you'll get tired. And that's what most people do. They want to go on a date start exercising, they get a little bit tired, they hate themselves start eating again. And they actually end up gaining more weight and actually first started. So the key here is you're making the process painful, I do the exact opposite. Opposite, I make the process more fun, and not doing it painful. So for me losing my streak is now going to be painful, because now I worked on it for 600 days. Imagine you work on a project for 600 days, you it's like a baby, you want to keep going at it right. And that's the beauty of momentum. This means you got to work at consistency is one of those the other series I'm gonna share with you, you get to work with consistency for only a few days, maybe a few months after that consistency will work on you. And it becomes harder to miss than to do. So when you put it all together, we all can use reinforcement, plus, basically making the process more fun. And more importantly, staying with something for about a few weeks. I call it the 21 day rule until it becomes a habit. Once it's a habit. It is no longer difficult. I gotta be honest with you. I do know there are times of course when I feel like yeah, you know what? I don't really feel like doing it. Yes. During those days, I have no choice but to use discipline. But please understand. I'm using discipline not every day. But occasionally on those days when I really don't feel like but what am I really the exact opposite. That is they want to use their discipline every single day because the process is pretty boring for them. And they will run out of juice and boom, they give up. So for me, it's the opposite. It's enjoying the process. And on those occasions, which is quite normal. It happens to everybody where I really don't feel like it. I say Listen, man, come on discipline, do it now. And I get Yeah, I do it. But I use those again occasionally and not every single day.
Pouya LJ 24:39
That's fascinating. It's actually dig. Very helpful. I think you're right. Starting it is probably first few days, weeks, maybe maybe months depending on the task at hand might be most difficult. And that's where most people end up giving up or absolutely not continuing grasp. So, in that sense, I
Dan 25:01
think you're so right now, is there anything in your life that you have really maintained long streaks at, because oftentimes is something that you really enjoy doing because maintaining streaks for some that you really enjoy doing, or something is very meaningful that maybe you don't really I don't really always enjoy doing I don't know my Mandarin flashcards, honestly, sometimes really boring. And you look at this character, it's like, God dammit, they're like, 200 points in this little shitty character. How am I supposed to memorize this? Right? So you don't always, but maybe because it's part of my identity as an international business person. So I got to learn this goddamn physical language, I have no other choice. So either it's part of your identity, or you really enjoyed, but it's something that is meaningful to you, is your writing on any aspect of your life that you feel like you maintain, you know, a high level of consistency at?
Pouya LJ 25:51
Not so much recently. So there are a couple of instances that comes to mind. I was while you were describing, I was actually thinking about this. And I guess I used to well, depends on the timeframe. So I'm still maintaining my relative. So audio books or books, they're in the same category in my definition, but reading or listening to a book for during a period of one year. So I have managed to maintain at least 25 books a year for the last six years. So that's, I
Dan 26:25
guess what? Guess what, why do you think you've done that? Big? Did you find the process to be very painful during these past few years?
Pouya LJ 26:32
Oh, no, I actually really enjoy. So I think a couple years ago or so, it was I was actually sure that I was like, You know what, I'm not gonna get through the 25. So I had to cram two books at the end of the year, which was, which was what you're saying those days that are discipline has to come in? Or you know, you really don't want to lose that streak, I guess.
Dan 26:49
But you use your discipline at the time, because you will never enjoy anything, every single day. Because we're humans, our hormones, our bodies changing all the time.
Pouya LJ 27:00
Absolutely, exactly. But but the task itself, generally speaking is joyful for me. Like reading books in general. But yeah, so so that that would be one thing was meaningful. I mean, I'm not counting brushing my teeth, I guess.
Dan 27:14
How do you reward yourself? By the way? Anybody, like finish these books? Like how do you reward yourself by that? Like, do you share, for example, some ideas about that book with your friends? Or do you put it out on your stories? Like, how do you write? Yeah,
Pouya LJ 27:26
I think I did. I think I do it a couple of different ways. Despite is not necessarily consistent. Sometimes I share a review, or a short article on on my website or Instagram, social media in general. Sometimes that's the case sometimes. So I definitely do check them off on Goodreads. I don't know if you're familiar that website. But
Dan 27:47
yes, yes. You're a fan of that when Actually, yeah,
Pouya LJ 27:50
yeah. So I always, well, not regularly, but after a few weeks, a few months or so especially at the end of the year, I tend to update that often. Now, again, I don't put every single book that I read there. But that gives me a sense of purpose, I think, in a way,
Dan 28:07
and a sense of progress. That's why progress,
Pouya LJ 28:08
right? You check
Dan 28:10
it off on basically, you know, Goodreads, and what I do is like I literally give myself a trophy. And at the end of the month or a year, you have a list that is getting bigger. You see, these are all gamification concepts. So one of the first sports I've ever had in business was gamification. And this was way back before identification was nowadays gamification is using every single application you can imagine. But when I first learned this, this was about 910 years ago, nobody even knew what the implication meant. So this is exactly what you're doing that sense of progress, every little check every little things, your number getting bigger. All of these things are reinforcements. And these aren't secrets that people can use to become literally hooked on that subject or activity. And if we do it, we have a sense of, you know, pleasure. And that pleasure ultimately creates the desire to consistency is to do the exact opposite of what most people do. Most people set a goal that is difficult. They imagined to be hard and difficult. They use their discipline to begin the process. They get demotivated and they leave it the opposite it should be done and that you should first find a way to get hooked on the process. And that process involves linking a lot of positive emotions. Now I'm talking to right now I'm using a bit of NLP concept here and call this that anchoring, or basically emotional conditioning. Now you don't have to be an expert, but you in a simple term, you literally get yourself to enjoy the process. And once you do, then you have to use your discipline occasionally, instead of regularly and that basically is possible because every one of us can actually get us to do one more day of this, you know, task, but if you don't do it every single day, no one's gonna have the motivation. It's designed to avoid pain. Yes.
Pouya LJ 29:57
Having said all of that, I have to preface this then I'm not actually so good at being consistent in general. So I think Don't take my advice
Dan 30:07
with you right now, this is not your problem, right? The problem of 99.9% of the population. I mean, with all due respect, consistency is not somebody can find in most people at the very beginning, it's quite normal. This is something that takes a lot. It's kind of like becoming a kung fu master or something, right? Or getting used to being punched in the I don't know, in the belly and say, Oh, you have no problem, right? So it's kind of like that. And but in reality, you should never ever bash yourself or anybody that you know, who has a problem with, you know, lack of consistency, because nobody is supposed to do that. I told you, we are not by nature designed for consistency. Unfortunately, our very evolutionary programming is designed to make us unhappy, unfulfilled, and live a very short life and die at the age of 25. This is our genetic, original evolutionary programming, just like animals do. Right? So in that case, we are no different in any way from animals, which is why to have fulfillments. And to have patents and to achieve big goals, we have to rise above that, which means we pretty much have to go against the nature or as I do hack nature. gamification is a great example of hacking. It's like a life hack that we use to temper with our very nature as a species, which is why we all need to work even I myself, I would I still have a long way to go in terms of consistent my others of my life. And for that reason, it's like a never ending journey, you're never there completely, you're always getting better. And we all have to work on ourselves consistency. And it takes a tremendous amount of effort. But it is totally worth it. If we know how. And if we put in the effort, then it'll definitely change our destiny.
Pouya LJ 31:50
Absolutely, I think I think it actually does in those short bursts, that I did have consistency or discharge areas such as reading a book, I think I can definitely attest to that. We're shortly coming to the end of the show. So is there anything that we missed out on that you want to talk to talk about or summarize?
Dan 32:07
Well, first of all, it was a great show, I really loved it, we talked about the importance of consistency and why we have been consistent. And then we describe why most of us and by most of them, like really, most of us have problem with this. And no one in this world. If you are a human being if you have a human chromosome, you are not, you're not supposed to be consistent. By nature, no one is consistent. So to become consistent, you have to actually work on yours. This is called personal development. And you don't have to make it so hard. We said the key to consistency is not discipline. People say like, Oh, you gotta be disciplined. Oh, the problem is your brain is designed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. That is why you always want to see what is that notification on your app, you always want to check the latest story on your friend on Instagram. These things are not does that you're just like, okay, I should be in touch with my friends. Oh, discipline opened Instagram. It's not like this, you do it because you like it. The key because it's an all others of life is the exact same thing. You have to find a way to get hooked on the process, and to use the same methods of reinforcement to get yourself enjoying the process, which is why I believe that in all areas of life, if you want to get consistent, here's the question you have to ask yourself, How can I make this process as fun as possible? And how can I reward myself, every time I stay consistent, both are important. If you do not reward for example, if you go to a circus, you see that anytime these animals do a certain jump, or go through a certain hoop, immediately, the guy there rewards him with some sort of food or whatever it is. And guess what happens if that person stops rewarding them? Well, someone's going to be a Tigers lunch very soon. This is the story that we have to go through. So you need to learn to reward. Make the process fun, number one, number two, reward yourself for staying consistent. Tell everybody that you're consistent. Go to your coach and say, coach, I've been at the gym for two months. And yeah, man, you're the best you say you bet your ass and the best. And this process is going to give you that. So it's called an example of social, basically rewards. But please do know that if you want to rely solely on social rewards, you're not going to stay consistent. So you have to create personal rewards. One example I gave you guys was doing seven days of exercise in a row without breaking a single of these streets equals to pizza on the weekend. That's one of the things I do for myself and I love pizza, especially with chicken. I love it. But the point is this, you got to create that level of consistency. And once you get hooked once you get rewarded, you do not need discipline every single day but trust me even if you love something, if maybe yes You had a very bad fight with your girlfriend. Of course, the next day, you don't have dessert for anything, let alone doing your Mandarin studies. So what you instead now it's time for discipline, but you'll be using the discipline muscle irregularly, which means you're literally your ego depletion will not get in the way. Because just like you know, using muscle make suit makes your muscles tired, using your discipline will make your ego depletion occur. And that ultimately makes it much harder. However, if you're doing what you love, most of the time, during those days where you're enjoying Li during the process, your discipline muscle is actually recovering and resting. So on those days when you had a terrible night, or you missed your sleep, or you heard a bad news, or you're hurt that you're I don't know, you cannot get the vaccine, even though you're 70 something years old. During those days, you still can use your muscle of discipline because it's been recovering throughout the process.
Pouya LJ 35:54
Amazing. That's just I think that's a good place to end. Thanks. As always joining,
Dan 36:00
buddy. Very nice. Glad to be here.
Pouya LJ 36:02
Thank you everybody for joining us. Hope you stay consistent. Also consistent in leaving comments. That would be nice for our shows. I mean and until later episode. Have a good one, everybody.
