Everyone I’ve learned from, whether through reading or conversation, who has accomplished extraordinary things shares one trait: they’re comfortable being uncomfortable. To remind myself what it really takes to make lasting change, I came up with the acronym SWEAT:
Sustained Weekly Effort At Threshold
When you sweat during physical activities you know you are putting in the effort and will see results. In marathon training, there’s always one run that pushes you—not to exhaustion, but just past your comfort zone. Other workouts build up to this, but this run is the secret sauce—it can’t be skipped.
A lot of SWEAT, but so worth it!
The goal of this run is to build endurance without exhausting yourself. At first, it felt odd because I was moving so slowly, but I could go further and last longer than ever before. After three to four weeks of consistency, I saw so much improvement that I could increase my speed—but why mess with a plan that’s working?
This run is a great analogy for how to approach change in life. If you are willing to prolong the results and put forth a plan of small incremental effort that might put you slightly out of your comfort zone you will find yourself at your destination and say to yourself, “Wow, that was easier than I thought!”
The System
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, said, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” When you accept this statement as part of your identity you can not be stopped. But where do we start to become the best systems engineers in our world?
Step 1: Make it Real
Grab pen and paper or open a note taking app and write down all of your goals. This is the most important part, because when you write it down it becomes real. Now is the time to build purpose. Ask “Why?” five times for each goal and write that under the goal. Be honest with yourself and if you can’t go that deep then this goal needs some revision.
Here is my goal and the five whys:
I want to become the best life coach in the world!
Why? Because I love helping people succeed and build positive change in their lives.
Why? Because I believe that everyone deserves to feel good about themselves.
Why? Because when people feel good about themselves they put more positivity out in the world.
Why? Because when people put more positivity out in the world it becomes contagious and others will feel more comfortable to express themselves.
Why? Because when people feel comfortable expressing themselves we can sit down together and ask the tough questions like, “How can we improve today’s problems?” and that is the world I want my kids and their future kids to inherit when I’m gone.
“The best in the world!?! Yeah right.” “That is impossible.” “No one will ever listen to you.” “How could you possibly give people advice when you have done so much crazy shit when you were younger?”
These are all the thoughts that run through my head during all of this, but by asking yourself why and finding out your true purpose you can’t help but take them as challenges instead of negative self talk.
Step 2: Set Expectations
Once you’ve defined your goal and purpose, it’s time to set expectations. When I read my goal I know I can’t achieve it this year or even next year with my current situation. I’m working 40 hours a week at my current job and I have a family who I love and want to make sure I’m present for. If you want to become the best in the world at something then you need to put in a lot of time and effort and I’m not sure I have the time currently to achieve this within the next 15 months.
That is why I gave myself 15 years to achieve this goal. By then my kids will be out of school and onto whatever journey they decide on. I have financial goals that I am marching towards that will support the freedoms that I’m looking for. And if I target a 1% improvement each day and compound that year over year for the timeframe I gave myself I know it is possible.
Giving yourself the freedom of more time to achieve your goal alleviates the stress and sense of urgency. Ask yourself, what kind of absurd amount of time could we set that you laugh at because you know you will get it done by then?
Step 3: The First Bite
I often reference the question and answer, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” Let’s take that first bite—what’s the smallest action you can take right now to move toward your goal? I started searching for life coaches on Instagram and pressed the follow button. Thought if I followed these amazing people I could learn a thing or two about being a life coach and all I had to do was press a few buttons.
The key to this first bite is to act now and not over complicate it. You are motivated and motivation is a great starter to anything. It’s that pull string on a lawn mower that when you pull it in just the right way, with just the right force can kickstart this engine inside of you.
Step 4: Build Your Bad Day Excellence
Motivation only gets you to your first bad day. When that day comes, everything falls apart and motivation vanishes. This foresight is your new superpower—a chance to embrace bad days and take positive action.
Under your goal and your five “Whys” I want you to create a two column table. The first column’s heading should be labeled “What Happened?” and the second column “What I’m going to do!” Think about all of the bad days or situations that you could experience in the future in a separate row under the first column. See the example below:
What Happened?
What I’m going to do!
My youngest is sick, my wife’s baking for a weekend party, and I’ve got three major work deliverables coming up.
I can’t think of anything to write about and no one is engaging with my content that I’m putting out there. I’m questioning if this is even worth it?
I have a race to train for, the boys have after school activities and my wife has been experiencing a lot of stress lately and needs me to step up and do more.
As you come up with more and more scenarios you will see that a lot of the time these situations are things that are completely out of our control. You can’t always control your environment, but you can control how you react. So now I need you to ask yourself, “What is the smallest amount of effort you could do on that bad day?” Put that in the “What I’m going to do!” column.
What Happened?
What I’m going to do!
My youngest is sick, my wife’s baking for a weekend party, and I’ve got three major work deliverables coming up.
While I’m sitting there cuddling with my youngest I’m going to watch a Ted Talk on habit formation and leadership. Or take a moment to write down three areas I want to learn about.
I can’t think of anything to write about and no one is engaging with my content that I’m putting out there. I’m questioning if this is even worth it?
I go for a walk to reflect on the progress I’ve made since I started. Ask myself what I’ve learned so far and what I could improve on with my new logic.
I have a race to train for, the boys have after school activities and my wife has been experiencing a lot of stress lately and needs me to step up and do more.
I will wake up early, before everyone wakes up, and go for a run/ride. While I am doing this I will listen to a podcast or audiobook that I can learn from.
We‘ve created a playbook for those bad days and have built your first system to work towards success. You are now a system engineer!
Step 5: Crafting Your Journey
With your new found title we will work from entry level to seasoned veteran. Now it’s time to write your own story as you work toward your goal. Some of the best stories start in the middle of conflict, and that’s exactly where I want you to begin.
Start a new page and begin to write down all the events over the last two weeks that lead up to you deciding to make this change. It’s ok to not be ok when doing this activity. Deep feelings may come and it is important to feel them so you can establish your origin story.
“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”
– Tony Robbins
Now finish this chapter with a driving statement like, “But I’m meant for more and I won’t stop getting better!”
The next step is to create the tasks and milestones you must face on your journey. Brainstorm small and large challenges that build towards your goal and align them with your purpose. Don’t skip the alignment question, as if you can’t come up with a good reason you will not be motivated to follow through with the task. Here is an example:
Task
Does it align with my purpose?
Difficulty (Low, Medium, Large, X-Large)
When can I get this done?
Create an Instagram account to follow leaders in the space, share my ideas and hold myself accountable.
Yes, this will help me engage with others to learn about how I can help others.
Low (5-10 minutes)
Today
You will see I’ve added difficulty and an estimated timeframe when I want to get it done to the table. This is to aid with prioritization, but these fields should be filled out after you’ve completed the first two columns.
Step 6: One Task and One Month
In the beginning it is important to fully commit to one of these tasks over the next 30 days. Remember, you gave yourself a lot of time to accomplish your goal, so there is no use in taking too much on. My first step was to create an Instagram account and follow as many life coaches as possible. I also followed any and all friends I had so I could use them as accountability in my social circles.
If it was signing up for something or building a new habit you need to set a daily or weekly target around it. So you can keep track over the next 30 days. I set a goal to post my first reel and then post at least one post a week after that. Lean all in on this task and add to your bad day excellence board how you will keep making progress. No excuses if you knew it was coming and how to handle it.
Step 7: Falling In Love With The Process
Your journey will never be linear and, like I mentioned earlier, the most progress is found when we are stretched just beyond our comfort zone. Life will throw all sorts of challenges your way and that is why we build bad day excellence. Your biggest challenge is to continue to build habits and routines that support your efforts towards your goal.
This is where your new identity as a systems engineer comes into play. Systems engineers are tinkerers. They never settle with good enough, they ask the question, “Can this get better? Are there tools that can make this faster so I can do more?” The key to your success is to find love in intent driven actions and reflecting on the results.
Conclusion
Throughout my life, I’ve jumped headfirst and failed forward. Bad Day Excellence is the result of constantly tweaking my systems. With every failure I ask myself if I can make the system better or utilize technology to find more time to do more impactful tasks. Even this post has gone through some systems I’ve implemented to help me become a better writer.
I’m nowhere near my goal, but in the last four months I’ve started an Instagram account, posted almost 20 reels, built a website, released my first online training course for free and written multiple articles. In my story I am an unstoppable force that has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
What’s your biggest goal, and what’s your first “bite” towards achieving it? Let’s build systems for success together!
PS. If you made it this far you are amazing. If you want this same content, but in bite size doses follow me on Instagram @walshmegrow.
