Ep. 314: Goal-setting with Ruthless Consistency
Guest: Michael Canic, PhD
It’s not uncommon to believe you have the will to win.
Most of us want to come out on top. It’s a nice idea, one that really gained acceptance with the “believe it and you can achieve it” movement that sprang forth from California in the 1980s. It was as if all you had to do was think and believe, and it would come to be because you were attracting the right energy.
Not so fast, says Michael Canic, a human performance specialist and author of a new book titled “Ruthless Consistency.” Canic says, “A lot of people say they have the will to win but do they have the will to do what is needed to win?” In other words, are you willing to work long enough, hard enough and make the sacrifices to win?
Muhammad Ali said, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” Canic agrees. He says most change initiatives – be they personal, professional or organizational – fail. Why? “The reasons are many and they are complex,” says Canic. Foremost amongst them is a lack of consistency.
Canic says, “You may think you’re consistent but you can’t see yourself the way those around you see you. You need a strategy that helps you define what you do, why you do it, [and] how you will do it. And then you have to be willing to do the work – the hard work of every day, staying on task.”
We invited human performance expert and author Michael Canic to join us for a Conversation That Matters about a shift in mindset that can propel anyone in any discipline on a path to consistency.
