Exploit the Hard Days and Build Trust

You’ve been so good all week. You haven’t broken your streak yet. In fact, you’ve caught a wave of momentum for the past few days. But today is different. You don’t have the confidence you felt yesterday. There’s doubt. Not just a small tinge of it; it’s enough to convince you today is the day your streak ends. Bottomline: there are two outcomes today: you do the thing or you don’t do the thing. What’s the difference between the two outcomes?

What caused the split? What drove you over the edge of doubt? The good news is that so many things can help us conquer that doubt. Caffeine, a supportive group of friends, an empowering blog post, an inspiring book, vlog, quote, sunshine, a workout. You get the idea, inspiration is everywhere. Then why are days like this so difficult to conquer if you’re swimming in an ocean of catalysts?

It’s because you’re human. You’re a complex orchestration of cutting edge biology powered by calories, driven by ever-changing needs and wants, figuring out who it is and wants to be. Yeah, you’re a piece of work.

Each day is a new day, and you should take it as such. Don’t look for blind guarantees of success — they’re lies. Instead, build trust in yourself by doing the things you said you would. Make that agreement. And know that some days are going to feel 100x harder than others. But, you can exploit that.

When you make a commitment, add on conditional triggers. For example, say you made a commitment to write a blog post each day. Knowing that you definitely WILL encounter those rough days ahead, account for them. Say to yourself, “when I become aware that it’s a rough day, I will immediately begin to write.” You’re deciding a default action when a particular condition is met. When that condition is met, you don’t have to think about anything since you’ve already decided what you want to do about it. The last part is crucial: you need to do what you said you would. This is the part where trust is built. If you can do this, you’ll be more confident in each endeavor moving forward where more trust is built.

Get your reps in. These are small, yet critical actions that are the foundation of who you are and what you’re capable of moving forward.