3 Critical Things That Sports Taught Me About Consistency & Discipline

The thought of doing something every day is easy. However, when you think about actually doing it, that’s when it gets hard.

Extremely hard.

Even if you are innately passionate about your craft — you’ll still have those days when it becomes a challenge to do.

If you’re a writer, sometimes you’ll have days when you get writer’s block.

If you’re a chef, some days the ingredients might feel off.

If you’re an athlete, almost all of the time you’re sore and physically exhausted.

When I look back on my athletic career, I can honestly say that there were more days when everything in my body was telling me not to go workout than days where I felt good and wanted to workout.

Despite this being the case, I still found a way to do it anyway.

That’s what true will power is all about. That’s what mastery is all about.

Although I didn’t understand it conceptionally back then, I was instilling a level of discipline and consistency in my daily routine that would change my life forever.

No matter how I felt or what my emotions were telling me, I had to go to the gym. I had to work out or I was falling behind the competition.

After all the saying goes,

“If you not getting better, you’re getting worse.”

There was no staying the same. If I wasn’t moving forward, other people were.

But it wasn’t really about trying to surpass the competition in a single day. It wasn’t about just checking off the box and putting in any kind of effort to say I did my job for the day.

It was about making a consistent, concerted attempt to get better regardless of what was happening externally or internally.

It was about waking up with a goal, an intention in mind, and doing what I said I was going to do.

It was about me asking myself, “Am I serious enough about my craft to put in the work even if I don’t physically or mentally feel like it?”

Through those years I learned about consistency without intentionally trying to learn about consistency.

It made the athlete that I was and it has even made me the business professional that I am.

3 Critical Things That Sports Taught Me About Consistency & Discipline

1. If you can do what others aren’t willing to do, you’ll have what others won’t have. The futher I went along in my basketball career, the more I saw my friends and former teammates quit. I began to see how many players refused to put in the everyday effort that is required to be successful. The ones who did put in the work went much further and many became professional athletes. The others faded out of the picture. Consistency separates those who really want it and those who kind of want it. It’s the difference between being committed to your goals and your goals being negotiable. Most people won’t commit, but if you do, you will see results.
2. If you can focus on the process, the results will come. One of the hardest parts about accomplishing things in life is that we often want the results before we deeply acknowledge how long we have to put in real work to see them. If you can delay the need to reach the end, and remain enamored with the process, you’ve already won. Once I was done playing basketball, I looked back on my career and saw that it was the process of trying to become a pro athlete that was special, not actually making it. It was the game within the game. It was the challenging days and the bonds that were formed. The process is the where it’s all at, not the results. Fall in love with practicing, not just winning the game.
3. If you can make it simple, and manageable, it will be easier. Part of what allowed me to be consistent as an athlete was ensuring that I wasn’t biting off more than I could chew. I knew it wasn’t particularly necessary to work out for 3 hours, life weights and do conditioning every single day. All it took was taking small steps to make progress. Whether that did involve a 3-hour workout and weights or just yoga and physical therapy for the day. As long as I was doing something to move forward, I was sticking to the plan. I was being consistent with the craft. Most of the time we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate we can do in a year. Goals don’t get completed overnight, but if you can make it easy and manageable, you can make incredible strides over time.

Did You Do What You Said You Would Do Today?

Being consistent at anything simply starts with a commitment before anything else.

Life will still happen.

Things will still come up.

However, when you actually commit to your craft, none of that matters.

You still have to show up. You still have to perform. You still have to give 100% effort, for no other reason than that’s what you committed to.

That’s what a professional does every single time.

The truth is that commitment doesn’t care how you feel. It doesn’t care what day it is. It doesn’t care that you slipped in shi*t this morning, was late for work or that your boss cussed you out.

It cares about execution and action.

It cares about getting 1% better.

At the end of the day, you always want to ask yourself, “Did I do what I committed to?”

If you did, then that’s a win for the day. You can cross it off.

Now, all you have to do is wake up and do it again. And again. And again…

I appreciate you for reading…

Malcolm Lemmons is a former professional athlete turned entrepreneur, author, and speaker. To check out more, visit his website at www.malcolmlemmons.com or connect with him on Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn.