Yes, You Need to Try Harder

If you've been around for a while, you know I'm big on the power of consistency. Small steps, when repeated every day, compound into big wins. And this is the message most people need to hear. It doesn't matter how intense your effort is if it isn't sustainable. This applies to everything: exercise, eating, your work-life balance, and your relationships.

But at the same time, the opposite is also true. Sometimes, you really do need to try harder and push toward a higher intensity. I hope this post is the push you need to recognize where you've let yourself slack off, or where consistency alone just isn't cutting it anymore.

Here's what I mean:

Exercise: Becoming consistent is always step 1. But step 2 is turning up the intensity. I talked about this in a previous post, but if your workouts aren't working, it's probably because you're not going hard enough. Specifically, when it comes to changing your body composition, you need to strength train properly. That means getting somewhat close to failure in your sets. You have to stress the muscles enough to force them to adapt and grow. There is simply no other way to build muscle or "tone up."

Work & productivity: When it comes to tackling your daily to-do list or showing up well at work, the best way to get high-quality output is to focus your time in blocks where you can work intensely. Stop checking your email every five minutes. Stop letting yourself get distracted between tasks. Whether you're writing a report or cleaning the kitchen, a certain intensity of focus gets the job done better and faster than letting the constant inputs of our digital and physical world override your attention.

Eating: You need to actually prepare. For me, this means being diligent about meal prepping all of my lunches for the week on Monday. It's not enough for most people to just intend to eat healthy without dedicating real effort to planning how they're going to get there.

Relationships: It's up to you to not let them run on autopilot. You can text people all day long, like their Facebook posts, or even get together for a weekly dinner, but you need to put more intentional effort into the quality of those interactions. Are you genuinely listening? Asking questions? Getting to know people on a deeper level? Or are you making every conversation about you? Are you talking about things that actually matter, willing to be vulnerable, willing to be your true self? If not, start there. Our relationships are only as strong as we let them become. And if you sense that the people you're keeping in contact with aren't people you want to go deeper with, it might be time to reevaluate those relationships altogether.

Consistency is still key, and it always will be (hey, that rhymes!). But it needs to work in tandem with a sufficient level of intensity and effort to actually get you where you want to go. Work smarter, yes, but sometimes you still need to work harder too.