How is it that some people can “easily” skip workouts or indulge in epic cheats?

It’s not because they’re somehow special or fundamentally different to you. You’ve just got to realize that you’re not seeing the many months (and often years) of consistent hard work that led to that moment.

Much like social media, it’s only the “highlight reel.”

Substantially changing your body needs consistency of action—deliberate and concerted effort over an extended time horizon.

And in the context of physique transformation, that means:

* Good dietary control

* Hard progressive training

* Purposeful periods of recovery

Nail these three things over many months and positive things will happen.

It’s also consistency of action that explains why you can miss a few workouts and not lose your gains or enjoy a few days of vacation eating all the foods you love.

And it’s banking days of purposeful recovery that help you ride-out periods of high stress—like that project launch at work or even the “good stress” of standing in a queue for 16 hours at Six Flags.

Consider the big picture.

If most of your time is spent eating healthy food, training hard and resting harder, one-off indulgences or a missed workout won’t unravel your progress.

At worst, it slows things down a little—a mere bump in the road. And if you were previously on a roll, the slow-down is often temporary.

The key is getting straight back to the regularly scheduled programming.

But remember, the inverse is also true.

A couple of low-calorie meals and a few heroic workouts won’t tip the scale in your favor. Sure, it feels good in the moment. But as an isolated event, it’s not going to move the needle.

CONSISTENCY of action.

That’s what matters.

Bruce Lee summed it up nicely with his quote: “Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”

Now go make it happen, repeatedly, MOST of the time.

– Coach Bryan