Let me offer you a different way to be consistent and change your life. I will take an example from my life as well as go into extreme details, no matter what, for I know that this changed my life and can change yours too.
For example, from not being able to run even a few hundred meters in April 2024, I ran two half marathons of 21 kilometres each. From hating to study all my life, even failing class 12 maths, getting only 16 marks, I read over 77 books in the last 22 months.
From being a six-year porn consumer, at present, I have written three books, three short stories, 34 plus letters, three plus essays, getting over 1.5 thousand followers on LinkedIn and becoming a callisthenics athlete.
From not being able to do two pull-ups in December 2024, now deasily o easily do eight to ten pull-ups.
Well, I am not bragging about myself. I just want to tell you what I’m going to tell you works, and that’s why I don’t have these New Year’s resolutions.
Now see, a year... A new year has come, you are excited, you have your new year goals, and you are motivated to change your life. You feel like crushing the year, cracking the exam, that job, studying like hell, hitting that gym, running daily and whatnot.
With all this, almost 80% of you will quit in the first month itself.
Don’t worry, I ain’t attacking you.
Let me solve this problem for you. See, with enough trial and error, with enough reading books, watching enough videos and talking to enough people who keep asking, “What’s the reason for your consistency, Navneet?” I have always come to a single thing that I will tell you about, because of which I unlocked half a dozen callisthenics skills in 3 months and had 100% of attendance in December.
Before that, I had quit running, quit content creation on LinkedIn and Twitter and a lot of things.
What I am now going to tell you is the reason why an average day of mine in Varanasi is way better than my ideal day of mine in my hometown.
( By the way, the amount of suspense I have created to tell this, I am glad that you guys aren’t in front of me. You guys would have started to throw stones at me. )
This is what is called, drum roll please, ‘systems’.
Now, in this case, if you have started abusing me in your thoughts and on the other hand, you aren’t able to hit your goals. There is something wrong with you, so bear with me.
See, all of you know that some days you guys are motivated, and you do the thing which you had to do, but on others day when you aren’t, you simply skip it. I know it happens to you because it has happened to me a lot of times.
Ask yourself, why aren’t you exercising daily, studying daily? For some reference, this motivation thing is so bad that it, that if I relied on this, I would have preferred sleeping over waking up at 5:30 and exercising for two hours from 6:00 AM in this cold.
But for this, there is a system in place. I have paid for my callisthenics classes, so even if I never feel like going there just for the sake of the money, I have to go.
That because I had hit 100% attendance and also unlocked a few skills. I didn’t feel like it, but I still went, and the trainer made me do the exercise, so at least I am succeeding in my end goal of exercising daily, and that is what matters in the end.
Now, let me tell you how to do the same. I know you have your college. I feel you shouting that you don’t have time. ( Share your device usage time. I will tell you how to get some time. So, if I were in your place, I would never decide to exercise alone.
You join a club, you pay for a gym, or if you can’t do it, just be friends with the most physically fit boy or girl in your class.
Go hang out with him or her and will, and that will make it hard for you to quit, isn’t it? If you pay for a gym, at least the money factor will force you a bit to hit the gym even if you don’t want to, because losers rely on motivation, whereas winners have a system in place that doesn’t allow them to quit.
Now I shall talk about the studies part. But before that, let me tell you one more thing. So when I was in my hometown, I used to go running with, uh, one of my physically fit friends, Prakhar.
We used to wake up at 3 AM in this cold and go running. Just because I didn’t want to disappoint him, I kept waking up and going. So start to exercise with the fittest boy or girl you know in the college or university. At least you will be regular for the fear of disappointing him or her.
Or simply have a severe instant punishment for quitting. Go with a friend to the gym, get admission. Then both of you put 1,000 rupees in an envelope. The first one to quit shall lose, and the other one will take the total 2,000 rupees.
I haven’t tried this, but I know that if the punishment is severe and instant, you will prefer to keep going rather than quitting. Take it or leave it. But never, never ever rely on your motivation or willpower to do a task, for the day you don’t feel like you will lose. Have such a system in place that doesn’t allow you to quit.
Now let’s talk about your studies. I know there is that dream company of yours that you want the job at. You have to clear that dream exam of yours.
And since this is a new year, you are ready to kill it, aren’t you? But my friend, I beg you, don’t rely on your willpower to study. I will tell you about myself.
When I relied on my willpower to write a few months back, there were weeks when I didn’t write or publish anything. But now I have a system in place that is to come to the Central Library daily.
I come to the Central Library daily in the morning, and then even if that day I feel like it or not, I have to read and write. I can’t pass my time here watching YouTube or scrolling through Instagram because the environment is one of studying.
So I prefer studying rather than consuming content. This makes it so easy for me. There were even days when I told myself, “Navneet, be in the room today and study from here.” And you know what? all those days, I just watched unnecessary videos and doom scrolled Instagram.
Now, for you too, don’t rely on your willpower to study.
If your willpower were strong enough, you wouldn’t even need to read this.
Please use your time and energy to trap yourself in a place where even if you don’t feel like you have to study.
Come to the library daily or join a private library. Scrolling on your phone will be hard for you in the library.
Studying will be much easier here.
Make a group of friends who are better at studying than you. Study with them. That will make it harder for you to quit, even if you want to, or to skip. But I beg you, never rely on your willpower. Build systems instead, for anything and everything.
I can tell you because I exercise for two hours daily in the morning, read an average of 50 pages daily, and write an average of 1,500 to 2,000 words daily, even when on most of the days I don’t feel like it, just because I have systems in place.
I have paid money for my callisthenics class, and I don’t want to disappoint my trainer and my friends there. And I come to the library daily. So here, studying becomes much easier for me, rather than just passing my time.
For you, I want you to build systems. To be physically fit, go join a gym. Have friends to exercise daily or join some sort of club.
Befriend people there so you fear skipping and disappointing them. Got it?
Now for studying, join a library, join a club, join a group of smarter students than you. Do anything but make quitting impossible for you.
Never rely on your willpower or motivation. Build systems instead.