Why you can't stay consistent

6:20 PM

You had a hard day at work.

You haven’t been to the gym yet and are still 2000 steps short of your goal.

You don’t feel like doing anything today.

You’ll get back on track tomorrow.

You ignore that shallow feeling of guilt that grows in you.

The next day

You forgot an important appointment so no gym for you today.

The feeling of guilt gets heavier.

Days after days pass

You think less about the gym and that feeling of guilt decreases.

A few weeks later

It hits you like a slap in the face.

You failed. Again.

But how?

Weren’t you insanely motivated?

I wanna teach you how to stop relying on motivation and have things you can simply follow every day for the rest of your life to achieve your dream.

And trust me, if you’re serious about it, your life will change.

My Story

A week ago someone sent me this e-mail.

It sounded painfully familiar.

I trained for years, but my body didn’t look like it.

I was ‘productive’ for years, but I had nothing to show for it.

My fault? I haven’t been consistent.

I was insanely motivated and did much more than necessary.

Then I missed one day, then another…

Suddenly weeks passed in which I didn’t do anything.

I felt like a piece of shit.

I felt like a failure.

It seemed like everyone else was getting somewhere while I sat here doing nothing.

That motivated the hell out of me so I started again.

And everything started all over again.

After years of trying, I finally found the solution.

Since then I never missed two days in a row in the gym or with anything else that’s truly important.

Except for the last 10 days cause I'm kinda sick. (Don’t work out if you’re sick. Just don’t)

Let me tell you what changed.

The Mindset Shift that changed my life

I got this one from Dakota Robertson and this sentence changed a lot for me.

If I do nothing, nothing will change.

And I certainly want to change, so the only way to do it is to do something that gets me closer to the person I wanna become.

So I want to expand the previous sentence

‘Every single rep is getting me further from the person I don’t wanna be anymore and one step closer to the person I wanna become’

I don’t wanna work out today.

But you know what I want even less?

Become that Anti Vision I have for myself.

Stop looking for big solutions

We tend to look for quick and complex solutions to our problems.

We think we need to do more of everything.

More exercises in the gym.

More stuff in our morning routine.

More Habits.

Just more and more.

But that’s not the case.

It's the opposite.

The greatest results come when you repeat the same simple basics over and over again.

Small improvements over a long period of time will always outweigh big fixes for a short period of time.

So stop overcomplicating everything.

You can do a crash diet and lose 5kg in 2 weeks. But you learned nothing and will gain back the weight in a few weeks.

But if you learn the basics of weight loss and just implement these into your day you will have way greater success in the long run. You might just lose 0.5kg per week but you’ll do so consistently.

That’s what it’s about.

In the past, I always tried to do more. My ‘routines’ took longer and in the end, I didn’t stick with anything cause I lost my motivation.

That’s not the way it should be.

Stop caring about anything but the really important stuff.

Influencers want us to believe that you need a big ass routine and do hella stuff to be successful. But that’s big cap.

It’s like being in the gym.

Master the basics.

That’s all you need in the beginning.

Stop looking for fancy solutions that you use as an excuse for not starting and use the easy solution that will get you there.

Stop looking for quick success

Instant gratification destroyed our generation.

We aren’t used to doing something that doesn’t give us direct feedback and this is why so many of us fail.

You won’t see any difference after one workout.

You won’t feel healthier after getting your steps in for one day.

But when you scroll on TikTok there is a new dopamine hit waiting for you every 30 seconds.

It seems like we aren’t able to delay gratification anymore.

Modern society indoctrinates us with quick fixes for everything.

60-second clips that teach you how to make 100k in 15 minutes with just your phone today.

5-minute youtube videos that tell you how to achieve your dream life easily in 3 days.

All that is just to trigger your dopamine.

They don’t talk about the hard work, because you wouldn’t buy from them.

But it’s bullshit.

It takes a lot of hard work and endurance to get there.

But the things you will get are yours forever and this shit is way more rewarding than every quick fix you could ever get.

For some things, there isn’t a shortcut.

Your life is one of these things.

Non-Negotiables

Now we’re getting to the good stuff.

Here is where everything we discussed earlier connects.

These are the basics we talked about.

This is the bare minimum.

Right now I have 3 Non-Negotiables:

1. Workout

2. 10k steps

3. Writing

I do these EVERY SINGLE DAY.

My biggest priorities are my health and building my personal brand.

I know if I just do these every day I’m gonna reach my goals at some point.

When I’ve done these it was a good day, everything else is a bonus.

I try to read every day as well but it isn’t one of my non-negotiables. It’s not absolutely necessary. I know I can reach my goals without reading.

You should be able to do your Non-Negotiables for the rest of your life.

It should be painful NOT to do them.

Life is unpredictable, so it might be impossible to do all three. (You can't cheat yourself)

In this situation, you have to do at least 2 of these 3 and never miss the same thing 2 days in a row.

This obviously doesn’t apply when you’re sick. You need to stop taking everything literally.

I’m gonna give you a step-by-step guide on how to pick these.

How to finally become the person you want to be

I got parts of the Framework from Dan Koe.

He’s the one that first introduced me to the whole Antivision Thing.

Humans tend to focus way more on negative aspects than on positives.

It’s sad but that’s just the way it is.

That’s also the reason why most of the news is negative. It just gets more views, generates more money, and so on.

So why shouldn’t we use that to our own advantage?

Build an Antivision

It's easier to see who you don’t wanna become instead of seeing the person you wanna become.

So sit down and write everything you don’t want in your life.

Body, Health, Work, Relationships, just everything.

Build your Anti Vision.

Build the person you DO NOT wanna become.

Visualize your ideal life

Now that you know what you don't wanna become, it should be way easier to visualize your dream life.

What do you want instead?

What are your biggest goals?

Where do you wanna live?

How much do you wanna work?

How much money do you need?

Answer these kinds of questions to get clarity over your goals.

Create your Non-Negotiables

Now that you’ve visualized your ideal life, you should know what your biggest goals are and which things are your biggest priorities.

For me, these are:

1. Building my personal brand

2. Getting in Shape

So break it down even further.

What is the absolute bare minimum you need to do to get there?

For me, these are:

1. Writing

2. Workout

3. 10k Steps

(I know nutrition is just as important to get in shape, but I do this anyways)

These are your Non-Negotiables.

This is the base of everything that follows in your life.

If everything else collapses, these are the anchors you can always fall back on.

As I said before, really stick to the most important things, and don’t overcomplicate stuff.

Trust me, it will do you more harm than good.

For me, 3 is the sweet spot.

Master the basics

Yeah…

That is exactly what it says.

Do these every day and stop looking for shortcuts.

Level up

At some point, these will become so natural that you don’t even have to think about them.

This is your new baseline and you can level up.

You can add things or make them more difficult.

But again, not too much. Don’t overcomplicate things.

You should be able to do these every single day.

And if you can’t just come back to your original Non-Negotiables.

Going from 0 to 1 is way more important than going from 1 to 1.1.

By just following these “simple” basics you stop relying on your motivation.

You don’t need to ask yourself what you need to do. You got it.

Conclusion

We tend to look for big changes that will transform our life easily and quickly.

But that’s not how it works.

To really change something we need to stop looking for instant gratification and cheap dopamine.

You can’t fail if you do the right things every day.

We have to return to the basics. That’s where success hides.

Doing the same ‘boring’ basics over a long period of time, especially if you don’t feel like it.

Having that baseline of non-negotiables will give you way greater results than having that quick-fix mindset that got you here in the first place.

Great things don’t come cheap.

Be ready to pay the price.

Your task for the week

You probably guessed it.

Go through the framework yourself, build your Non-Negotiables, and write them down.

If you liked this week's letter feel free to share it with others who could need it.

Also, feel free to message me if you got something you would like me to talk about or if you have any questions.