I wish I could say that everyone who starts a fitness routine, a nutrition plan, a sleep regimen, sees amazing life-changing results and achieves all their goals. Of course that’s not true. Some people get remarkable results, some people get mediocre results, and some get no results at all.
Now, there are an almost infinite number of variables that determine this: having a solid program is one, of course, but others include physiological factors like genetics, sex, and age; sociological factors like lifestyle, environment, education level, and income level; and behavioral factors like adherence (how well you stick to the plan) and persistence (how long you stick to the plan). And there are countless others.
It’s tempting to look at one person who got amazing results and ask them what their secret is, as if there’s a single trait that allowed them to override all other variables and set them apart from the pack. That’s generally not true. Someone who gets great results usually has a lot of things going for them.
But that’s not at all to take away from the fact that they’re able to be consistent for long periods of time and are able to follow through on things even when they’re hard. People who get great results do tend to have some rare skills in common with one another.
And one of those rare skill that many successful people share, particularly in health and fitness, is a surprising one: they have a high tolerance for boredom.
The best results come from finding a thing that works, that you also enjoy (or at least don’t hate), and doing that thing for as many years as possible. And although those of us that deliver programs like that try to keep them interesting, there is an element of showing up to the gym Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4pm for 7 years that gets pretty monotonous.
James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, quoted a weightlifting coach who was talking about the difference between average and elite lifters who said, “At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.”
My point here is not to tell you that your training should be boring. It’s to tell you (again) what I say all. the. time… which is that consistency over time is what matters. There are more things all the time that clamor for your attention. I’m too old for TikTok, but I know that Instagram and Facebook and Google (and magazines!) are telling me every day about new programs, new movements, new methodologies, and new strategies that will finally get me that thing I’ve been waiting for.
But the reality is that none of those work unless you do them consistently for a long time. Doing the perfect workout (what even is that?) once will have little to no lasting effect on your life.
Health, fitness, and wellness are about showing up week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out for as many years as you can.
Find a thing you like to do. Find people you like to do it with. Make it as fun as you can. All those things matter.
But try not to get distracted by shiny objects. Because the real secret is to just keep going.