Awhile back I was watching Sports Center on ESPN and seen this guy who has run 8 miles on the beach in Miami for over 30 years and not ever missing one day. He still ran even on holidays and never took a vacation because he wanted to run on “that specific part of the beach”.
His actual name is Robert Kraft (aka “the Raven) and he’s known as a “streak runner”. He started running on January 1st 1975. He’s a Miami Beach Legend. I believe he finally quit running on April of 2009 after having run a total of 100,000 miles. The official running streak records list is found here.
My first thought was, that’s cool he was consistent but why the hell couldn’t he run in other places. Like if he was on vacation. Why not run there… and what would be wrong with taking a week break every once in awhile. Or running 3 times a week.
While this may seem odd. That’s pretty damn impressive!
I am not as impressed with the running as I am with the “Consistency” of the running. He could have easily said at year 10, you know… I’m going to stop running and become a bodybuilder, that would have been interesting… but he didn’t, he kept running!
This guy became so popular and so consistent people would show up to run with him. He would have hundreds of people show up to run with him… Think about that for a second!
Why did these other people show up to run with this guy..? It’s kind of like Forest Gump. He just decides to run one day and the longer he runs the more people he attracts to him.
But one day Forest decides to stop running. And the other people stop too. Isn’t it interesting that none of them kept running after Forest stopped running. There like oh shit what do we do since he stopped running.
I think the major reason why people started running with this guy is because people like being in the presence of Inspiration and greatness. The more he ran every day he also became more reliable and he gained their trust. People knew that he would absolutely with fail be there running at the exact same time every day.
Why do you think people showed up to run with him..?
If your gonna be consistent over the long haul it obviously has to be a BIG reason why your trying to be consistent.
As I look back in my life, I can’t say I’ve done anything consistent every day. Let alone every day for 30 years. That’s impressive..!
My other interesting thoughts on this
How long will it take for people to know you for doing something consistently over time and what will you be known for doing consistently…?
If you can do something consistent every day for 30 years your definitely an expert.
In the book Outliers the author Malcolm Gladwell states most people become experts after 10,000 hours of practice. Which is roughly 20 hours a week for 10 years. It’s interesting in this book of all his case studies that most of the people had their BIG success at roughly 7-10 year, including Bill Gates.
Heres what I believe “most” people are consistent in:
- Eating unhealthy food – some people really don’t know that the food you eat determines your health
- Eating too much food
- Not exercising
- Being in FEAR working a JOB and never venturing off into the unknowns of Entrepreneurship
- Having negative relationships
- Not learning anything about their self through self-development – AWARENESS Level is low
- Not having enough FUN or Adventure in their life, never going on vacations
- Not contributing
First off, I’m not saying I’m perfect. We all have stuff to work on in our life. The most important thing is though, are we working on it “consistently”.
So, Do you think you could do 1 thing consistently the rest of your life, what if it was a couple things you slowly started to do consistently one by one…?
- Eat Healthy Foods
- Exercise 3 times a week
- Make Money Outside of Having a Job – Focus on Steps not outcomes
- Practiced a self development task every day – read a book, listen to podcast, etc…
- Focused on creating more positive relationships in personal and business life
- Communicate better with your spouse
- Vacation consistently at least once every 3 months – doesn’t have to be out of the country
What are some other things in your life you would like to be more consistent on. Write them down and focus on them.
You can refer to our post on creating effective and positive rituals to help with being consistent and also go grab the book The Power of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz.
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