How To Be a Minimum Person
An Ode to Consistency
You need to perform better than yesterday; every day.
You need to hustle today, tomorrow, and forever.
The only way you can beat others is by performing better than them every day.
BS. Proper BS.
Treating each day’s work as a benchmark to be exceeded the very next day is an invitation to burnout. On a side note, here are 2 things you can do to prevent burnout in remote work.
The Maximum Performance Problem
Let’s look at a simple example. What’s the top speed of your car? Now imagine a world without traffic rules, would you always drive it at maximum speed?
Initially, for the thrill of it, maybe yes. But, how long would you keep it up?
Won’t you slow down even once to admire the sunset? Or, to take a call? Or, to keep changing the music till you find Billy Joel on the radio?
Or, to save your tires? Or, to save somebody’s life?
You will. You must.
This is the maximum performance problem, or the hustle culture problem:
It is impractical to exceed your work effort every next day.
The Minimum Person Solution
But you still want to succeed. You want to be better than others. You want to be among the best at what you do.
You can still do it.
The solution I propose is to set a minimum target every day.
Ideally, your minimum target must be the same every day. It might evolve in the long term but in the short term, it must be constant.
It must be specific and achievable yet not as easy as breathing.
And, it must be hit every day.
Why? Because it is practical. It is doable and it will help you achieve your greater goals faster.
The most successful people that you know about do not burn themselves a little more with every passing day. They are minimum persons.
Consistency is the key to success.
And, here’s the thing, being a minimum person is not easy. Realistically speaking, it’s one of the most difficult challenges.
Why? Because the foundation of the minimum person is based on consistency.
Consistency is what separates the average from the greats.
How To Give Your Minimum Every Time?
I can offer rough guidelines at how you can be a minimum person. Feel free to personalize the steps below.
- Set a long-term or medium-term goal.
- Specify a daily action (the minimum) that you can do every day to achieve your greater goal.
- Do the minimum every day.
You Will Win
Let me clarify, if I’ve been unclear, your minimum is not your maximum. The minimum goal is the least you can do and will do every day.
This also means that there will be days, a lot of them, where you will surpass the minimum target that you will set. That’s awesome.
There will also be many days where you will only hit your minimum target.
But, there will be no days when you won’t do the minimum.
You will be a minimum person.
You will be a winner.
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