đ The stunning accumulation of "a little bit every day"
#nodaysoff #cantstopwontstop #riseandgrind
How did The Dad get 15 million followers across platforms? A little bit every day.
Hereâs my favorite inspirational hip hop lyric:
âAnd then they say it happened for me overnight, shit, yeah, I guess
I guess it took ten years for me to be an overnight successâBig Sean, âSkyscrapersâ
Runner up:
âI love when you count me out"
Kendrick Lamar
A lot of progress can be made with âa little bit every dayâ over a multi-year timespan.
#nodaysoff. #cantstopwontstop. #riseandgrind. Toxic hustle culture right???
It depends on your personality and how hard youâre goin every day.
Personality
Are you a routine person? Iâve discovered later in life that I 100% am. Routine people are obsessive, neurotic, and if weâre bein honest, have a little bit of an addictive personality.
âOne day at a timeâ is a common overcoming-addiction mantra. One day at a time can be used to get rid of bad habits, but it can be used to create good habits too.
Intensity
If you go #nodaysoff and youâre super intense every day to the point of exhaustion, then yeah, thatâs toxic hustle culture. Youâre gonna burn out real quick.
Daily routine
So if youâre a routine person, try thisâŠ. Create a daily habit. Make it small and manageable. Do it every day, #nodaysoff. Get a streak going. Log each day you do it. See how long you can make that streak last.
If youâre slightly neurotic like me, youâll strive for a long streak. And that alone will keep you doing it each day.
But most importantly, the daily routine will no longer be a DECISION. You donât get to decide not to do it. You donât have to think about it. Itâs a given. Youâre doing it. So you will.
Make sure itâs easy-ish. And even though itâs very light intensity, it doesnât take long, and itâs not stressful, a little bit every day accumulates in a SHOCKING way.
The Dadâs content routine
On The Dad we had a master sched. 10+ slots every day. We did NOT miss slots. #nodaysoff.
If we just posted âwhen we wanted to,â weâd have all kinds of reasons to miss slots. We might even take full days off!
Instead we had no choice. We hit every slot. If there was a holiday week, weâd schedule two weeks in advance to cover.
How did The Dad get 15 million followers across platforms? A little bit every day.
2 miles per day
2022 was WILD for me. The first few months of the year were absolutely heartbreaking for me, as I decided it was time to move on from The Dad. (Weâll get to that part of the story eventually. Stick around.) And then after I made the decision, I had to set up for the transition and actually move on.
My fitness routine took a big hit.
On October 17 I checked Runkeeper. I had run about 170 miles so far that year. In 2021 I ran 365 miles. This cannot stand!
I did the math and figured out if I ran every day for the rest of the year, I could easily hit 366 by running 196 miles in 2 1/2 months. Iâd just run 2 miles per day for a month, then alternate 2 miles and 3.15 miles (5k) for rest of November, and then alternate 2 miles and 4 miles in December. #nodaysoff
(Important note: 2 miles isnât too strenuous for me. I run VERY SLOW. So just imagine your equivalent of this level of strenuousness.)
Laura was stunned. She says âYour body needs a break.â But I explained to her that this streak, and this daily routine is the only way Iâd do it. I know myself too well. If I set a weekly goal or just did âas much as I could,â it wouldnât happen. I need the daily routine. I need the streak. Plus I go so slow 2 miles is kinda like taking a long walk.
Some days were so easy I didnât even think about it.
And some days were quite challenging, because I didnât want to, because I had too much going on, because of the conditions, etc.
But the routine said I had to do it any way, every day.
Here was the weather on December 23:
I just reread âThe Last Lectureâ by Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor (and dad) who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and gave a lecture that went viral on YouTube. (WHAT? You havenât seen it? Go watch now.)
âThe brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who donât want it badly enough. Theyâre there to stop the other people.â
Randy Pausch
When it rained or the conditions werenât ideal, I thought about this quote. -33 was a brick wall I busted through.
Individual days can be tough, but because the routine is small and manageable, you have the power to get through it, and keep coming back.
When I made it to the end of the year, after running 76 days in a row, I did not collapse in a pool of exhaustion. Because it was only a little bit each day.
Happy new year
I freakin love the new year. LOVE IT. I love reflecting on the previous yearâs failures and accomplishments and looking ahead to the next yearâs goals.
This year for me is all about Channel 3. Will it work? Weâll see. But Iâm going to make a little bit of progress every day.
Iâll write a substack every Monday, at least until The Dad story is told.
(Oh and I may have some exciting The Dad-related news to share soon too. đđâïž 2023 is gonna be amazing.)
And Iâm keeping the running streak going. Be right back. Gotta go run 2 miles.
Love this. This is why James Clear's "Atomic Habits" resonated so well with me. I haven't seen the lecture you shared so I'll be watching that in several parts since it's quite long. Happy 2023!