Mastery follows Consistency

Jerry Seinfeld is among the most successful comedians, writers, and actors of his generation - by almost any measure of wealth, popularity, and critical acclaim. “Seinfeld”, his extremely popular sitcom beamed for almost a decade.

However, what is most impressive about Seinfeld's career isn't his earnings, awards or acclaim - it is his remarkable consistency. Show after show, year after year, he creates, performs and entertains at an exceptionally high standard.

In one chance meeting with Jerry Seinfeld, Brad Isaac asked Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. The following is how Brad describes what he heard from Jerry.

Jerry said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

Jerry chose a task that was simple enough to be sustainable for him. At the same time, he ensured his actions were meaningful enough to matter. As you'd notice, Jerry didn't say a single thing about results. It didn’t matter if he was writing great jokes or not. It didn't matter if what he was writing would ever make it into a show. All that mattered was “not breaking the chain.”

Perhaps that is how there is some truth in the saying “Mastery follows Consistency”.