Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #243 BITESIZE | Why Consistency is Key for Success, Health and Happiness | Rich Roll

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's Bite Size episode is brought to you by AG1, a science-driven daily health drink with over 70 essential nutrients to support your overall health. It includes vitamin C and zinc, which helps support a healthy immune system, something that is really important at this time of year. It also contains prebiotics and digestive enzymes that help support your gut health. It's really tasty and has been in my own life for over five years. Until the end of January, AG1 are giving a limited time offer. Usually they offer my listeners a one-year supply of vitamin D and K2 and five free travel packs with their first order. But until the end of January, they are doubling the five free travel packs to

Starting point is 00:00:51 10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 153 of the podcast with my good friends and fellow podcast host, Rich Roll. Now, Rich believes every success in his own life has been hard fought. And in this clip, he explains why the journey is often more important than the destination and why consistency is always key. The quick fix kind of hack your life mentality is a close cousin to the clickbait soundbite media culture. We all want it now. We want it immediately. We want to be the best version of

Starting point is 00:02:01 ourselves tomorrow. We want to read this book or do this one thing and fix everything overnight. And it just doesn't work that way. I don't believe in any of that. And I think even if you were given the opportunity to snap your fingers and, you know, become the person you always wanted to become, you're still robbing yourself of what's most valuable about that transformation, which is the journey to get there. Every success that I've had in my life has been very hard fought and has been a process of, you know, a lot of behind the scenes work undertaken consistently, aggressively, and anonymously. You move these mountains over a very slow period of time. You know, my podcast began, it took eight years to get it from where it was to where it is

Starting point is 00:02:54 today. My swimming career, my writing career, my athletic journey as an ultra endurance athlete, all of these things didn't happen overnight. They were the result of a dedication to a process that involves strategies and tactics that are not sexy, that are difficult, and that are mostly about tiny little things that you do every single day to move that ball forward imperceptibly and incrementally. And that's not sexy. That's difficult. And that doesn't lend itself to a clickbait narrative. It's just hard. That's the truth. And deadlines play a big part in that. So when I started the podcast, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to publish a new episode every single week,

Starting point is 00:03:46 no matter what. And I'm very proud of the fact that I've adhered to that. Like I haven't missed a single week, but simply by making that rule that I'm going to put one up every week, no matter what forced me to basically get my shit together and find a guest and produce it and post-produce it and get it up. I mean, in the early days, I was editing the show myself on GarageBand. I was the only person doing it. So I had to learn every component of what's entailed in creating a podcast from how you get it on iTunes to what mic should I be using and how am I recording this? Now I have a team, but that didn't happen overnight. It took many, many years. So I think what happens is people want the success. They want the result. They don't appreciate the hard work that goes into it.

Starting point is 00:04:38 And they're not patient enough to undertake the long journey required and the learning that gets packed into all of that to mature and grow over time. Most people overestimate what they can do in a short period of time, whether it's a month or six months or a year, and wildly underestimate what they're capable of accomplishing over a decade or a number of years. And I think that's a part of why people peter out on New Year's resolutions, like they're not seeing the results that they want right away. They haven't created a structure with interim goals and deadlines, you know, built into that where they can measure their progress incrementally, and they lose enthusiasm for it. So if I do have any kind of

Starting point is 00:05:26 special skill, it isn't that I'm an innately talented athlete or a naturally gifted podcaster. It's that I appreciate the journey itself and I'm willing to put in the work when no one's looking. And I've learned over time in every facet of my life that that work pays off over time, but you have to be unbelievably patient and resist that sense of entitlement that you get that when you undertake something difficult, that you need to be reaping the rewards. Like I'm just about the work and the process itself. And I've been lucky enough to engage in processes that I love so that I enjoy the journey itself. But by simply being about that journey and that process, that's why I've been able to move my life into the place that it is today.

Starting point is 00:06:20 I mean, thanks for sharing that, Rich. It's very, very powerful. I mean, thanks for sharing that, Rich. It's very, very powerful. What you have just been summarizing there is actually something that I feel Eastern and Western philosophies, although can seem quite different at times, where they really do converge is on the idea of process over outcome, journey over destination. You know, whether it's the Stoics talking about it, or whether it's Lord Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita talking about not enjoying the fruits of your labor, you know, you do the labor for the sake of the labor. You really, I think you beautifully demonstrate in that, that you didn't have a goal to be the number whatever podcast in the world, or it to be this big juggernaut of a show, which is listened to all around the globe. It was a commitment you made to yourself. I'm releasing once a week, every week without fail. And that word to yourself, I think is very powerful. A lot of us break the words that we make to ourselves. And I think that's

Starting point is 00:07:23 potentially the start of when friction starts to arrive in our life, which can lead us down a slippery slope. But I want to know, Rich, that vow you made to yourself, was it always a good thing? Or did at times it become a noose around your neck? Yeah, I would say it's a little bit of both. I mean, I think there's a, around your neck? Yeah, I would say it's a little bit of both. I mean, I think there's a, this is particular to me in a little bit of self-understanding. Like I'm somebody who is a bit of an extreme personality and I need these rules to like stay on track, right? Because Because I know for myself, if I missed a week, nothing changes. Like the earth still spins on its axis and I can still release an episode later than that. But personally, if I break that rule, then it just becomes easier to break it again.

Starting point is 00:08:20 And I know myself well enough to know that if I break it once, maybe I won't break it again in the next month. But six months later, I'll be like, well, you know, I didn't put up an episode that week. So I can do another week. Like, what's the big deal? And then it'll be a month before I do it again. And then I'll just break it all the time. Like, I just know that about myself, which is why I create these rules for myself. And I do it across the board in various aspects of my life. Like, I don't eat meat or dairy. I have that rule for myself. I don't drink or take drugs. Like, that's a hard rule for myself. And I need those in order to kind of stay on track. Now, those rules can also work at cross purposes with your goal.

Starting point is 00:09:06 If you are too rigid about them, this works for me. And I try to create rules that are still very doable in the construct of my life. I think the problem occurs when you establish a rule that isn't sustainable, right? So putting one podcast up a week, it's not that hard. Like it's pretty sustainable. But if I was to say, I'm going to put a podcast up every single day, I wouldn't have lasted very long before I broke that rule. And perhaps I would have flamed out on podcasting altogether and just quit. So the trick is creating guidelines, you know, sort of signposts along the way that you, you know, privately adhere to that are sustainable and workable within the construct of your life that are still healthy and manageable,

Starting point is 00:09:52 but also difficult enough that they keep you honest. I mean, I think the macro rule, if you're to telescope up to 30,000 feet is really, are you living your life intentionally or are you living your life reactively? And I think a lot of people are living vast aspects of their life in reaction to the world around them rather than intentionally in accordance with, you know, a plan or a rubric or, you know, a set of personal guideposts to help them make the proper decisions to lead them in the direction they want to go. And it's never been more easy to live your life reactively. Like we're constantly stimulated. We've deprived ourselves of the ability to be bored, to engage in our creative minds. We don't have the downtime that we used to have.

Starting point is 00:10:50 We're too busy, too stressed, under rested, overly stimulated. And I think when you're in that state, it's very easy to live your life on autopilot and just proceed. This is my life. This is what I do. And never step outside of it to question or to analyze why is it that you're doing things this way? Is there a better way?

Starting point is 00:11:16 Is this leading me where I need or want to go? And then years go by until you reach some inflection point or, you know, endure some kind of crisis that forces you to stop and take inventory of how you're living and make appropriate changes. or I'm going to wake up at this time of day, or I'm going to exercise three times a week, or I'm going to eat these foods and not these foods, or I'm going to go to bed at this particular time, or no screens within an hour of sleep, or whatever it is. I think being proactive about those things, making a commitment to yourself is an act of self-love, and then recruiting community for purposes of accountability to keep you on track. These are tools that I've deployed and employed in various aspects of my life, both in the podcast and outside of the podcast, to simply be a better human and to live more consciously, mindfully, and intentionally. And I think that's applicable

Starting point is 00:12:27 to everybody, no matter who you are or where you find yourself on this carousel of life. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #243 BITESIZE | Why Consistency is Key for Success, Health and Happiness | Rich Roll

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