“Are they laughing to me or are they laughing AT me?”
Jerome was just another struggling comedian trying to make it in the harsh world of stand up comedy.
Night after night, he got up in front of small crowds, and humiliated himself with jokes that elicited nothing but crickets from the audience.
All he wanted was to just write one good joke.
A joke that would put him on the map. Make him a success.
The one joke that would cement his legacy in the entertainment industry.
So every single day, he would wake up, and write one joke.
Just one.
Most days, the joke wasn’t even funny. But he did it anyway.
Every day he wrote a joke, he put a big red X on his calendar for that day.
Soon, the X’s started forming a chain. Day after day, week after week.
Until his goal completely shifted from “write a joke every day” to instead simply:
“Don’t break the chain.”
As the days, months, and years passed, his jokes got better and better.
Until eventually, they were so good that he couldn’t help but make it big.
Sure enough, in about a decade, Jerome (who now goes by Jerry) Seinfeld became one of the most iconic comedians of all time.
His self-titled show Seinfeld was ranked by TV Guide as the #1 Greatest TV Show of All Time, and it was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2012.
All because Jerry committed to writing one joke every single day.
In this letter, I’m going to show you how powerful it can be to do small things consistently over time, and give you a practice guide for building systems to guarantee you stay consistent.
Seinfeld’s goal was to write the perfect joke.
But he didn’t spend all of his time writing one perfect joke.
Instead, he put in a little effort consistently over time, writing a joke every day (whether it was good or not).
And over time that produced huge returns.
Had he spent all those years trying to write one career-launching joke, I doubt I’d be talking about him today.
This approach isn’t just effective in the entertainment industry.
In fact, the idea of small, consistent actions over time has been proven to produce better long-term results in business, finance, fitness, and relationships.
For example:
→Doing an intense 30 day health challenge OR walking for 10 minutes every day
→ Trying to time the stock markets and capitalize on hype OR dollar cost averaging
→ Putting all your energy into a big campaign OR creating content every day
In his book The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy argues that most people overestimate the importance of big, one-time actions and underestimate the power of small, repeated ones.
Tiny daily habits can lead to drastic change over time, while huge, one-time efforts often lead to burnout or failure.
Instead of spending a thousand hours on one thing, try doing one thing a thousand times.
Productivity isn’t about getting more stuff done.
It’s about getting more output per unit of input.
It’s about doing less and getting more out of it.
When you commit to doing one simple thing over and over again, you become the ultimate productivity machine.
Because while the input (or amount of effort or work it takes) stays the same, the result you get from it compounds and grows exponentially over time.
For example, I’ve been writing this letter (almost) every week for an entire year now.
My first letter only went to 207 people, and didn’t do anything for my business.
Now, a year later I’m reaching thousands of people, and driving tons of business.
But the workload is still exactly the same.
(In fact, if anything it takes less work than before, because I’ve gotten better and better at it, and built a robust system to help me—more on that in a sec)
So when you do one thing a thousand times, two things happen:
This is why consistent action over time trumps big concerted efforts every time.
By following this approach, you ultimately maximize your productivity by maximizing your efficiency.
The only failure point of this approach is that it absolutely demands consistency.
If you stop, the momentum stops too.
So how do you guarantee consistency, especially if you’re not a “consistent” person?
Well, there’s a reason I call it “conSYSTEMcy”.
Because the solution to a lack of consistency is a system.
When you build a system, the action continues regardless of whether you’re available to tend to it.
So let’s break down how to build a system to automate anything you want to accomplish in life.
Your output goal is what you want to happen. For example:
The output goal is something you cannot control.
It’s merely a target that is motivating you to do the work to achieve it.
Many people make the mistake of creating goals around outputs or outcomes, but they rarely come to fruition without a consistent plan in place.
So first get clear on what “output” you want. And then let’s create the plan to get there.
Now that you have your desired output, ask yourself:
“What’s one thing I can do consistently over time that will ultimately lead me to achieving my goal?”
This is your input goal.
For example:
The input goal is what you can control.
You can control the work you put in, the effort you make, and the things you do. But ultimately you can’t control the outcome of those actions.
So always create your systems around the input goal—what you can do consistently to make it happen.
If you want reach your desired output, you have to give it a consistent input.
And the only way to guarantee you’ll stay consistent with the input, is to create a system.
A system consists of three parts:
Now take your input goal, and decide what people, tools, process you need to make it happen.
For people, it might involve hiring an employee or getting a friend’s help.
For tools, you might use an app or software product to take on some of the workload.
For process, you might establish a routine, habit, or SOP that gets it done.
It doesn’t have to be complex in order to be effective.
For example, Seinfeld’s system was simple:
Output: Become a famous comedian
Input: Write a joke every day
People: Jerry
Tools: Pen, paper, calendar
Process: Write a joke
Yours can be simple too:
Output: Gain 1,000 new followers
Input: Publish a video every day
People: Me
Tools: Phone & editing software
Process: Record video, edit, publish
To be successful with this, you don’t have to automate every single part of the process.
Just building a system to handle some of the workload will make sure it requires less effort and actually gets done consistently, which will lead you to success.
A successful online business is just a series of systems and automations that all work together seamlessly to achieve a desired outcome.
When you get these systems right, it will:
→ increase your creativity and innovation
→ make your product better
→ increase client satisfaction
→ improve your lifestyle
I’m obsessed with helping people take their expertise and wisdom, and building a systemized way of sharing with the world and monetizing it.
If you want to grow your personal brand, build an audience of people who are passionate about what you do, and drive leads and sales to your business, book a call with me here.
I’ll look at what you’re doing, and give you my honest advice on what to do next.
I only take a few of these calls each week, so if there are no spots available, check back again later.
If you liked this letter, shoot me a reply with your biggest takeaway. I love hearing your thoughts.
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