Every single day Duolingo would send me one of these notifications reminding me of my daily streak for completing a Spanish lesson. 

Now this is going to sound weird and stupid and I understand that it makes no logical sense but there were many days when I’d go completely out of my way to ensure my streak did not end.

If needed, I’d hide from the crowds and hunker down in a bathroom so I could knock out my Duolingo lesson and protect my streak. 

It was weird, for sure. 

Even when I no longer wanted to further my language learning, I still found it difficult to stop.

That’s when I realized that when you have a goal and your goal is based on consistency and not quitting, then a streak grows to strange levels of importance in your brain.

It’s a powerful motivator. 

Here’s how I used the power of streaks to keep me consistent with my weight loss and fitness routine.

First things first, I made the tasks as easy as humanly possible. 

Imagine if I would have first opened the Duolingo app and the first lesson was two hours long and the assignment was to look up fifty Spanish verbs and then use all the verb conjugations in five different sentences for each verb. 

The next day’s lesson was going to be more of the same. 

I’ll tell you now, my streak would have lasted all of five seconds. 

Trying to start like that…with that level of extreme difficulty…

It makes zero logical sense.

No one is going to stick with it. Not for the long term. 

But this is exactly how normal people all over the planet choose to start a fitness and weight loss program.

They want to start as difficult as possible. 

They want to start with HITT training, or with a hard-core super restrictive diet. They want to start with two-a-days. They want to punish themselves in the gym. They want to walk from the gym hunched over, sweat pouring down their face. They want to brag about how sore their thighs are the next day.

They want to hurt. 

I mean…

What The Hell????

Normal people are nuts.   

But as nutty as they may be, I get why they do this.

Heck, I did it too. For many, many years. 

It’s because normal people worldwide are focusing only on the immediate goal rather than focusing on the process of obtaining the goal. 

They want to do everything now, thinking that by doing so it will get them to their goal quicker. 

But in reality, they are only making things so difficult now that both their brain and their body will not be able to handle the long-term process of continuing. 
 

And to stay fit and in good shape, you have to continue the process.

Today.

And tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next. 

And the moment your foot comes off the gas and the cookies go back in your mouth, that’s when you’re depressed and buying a bigger pant size again.

That’s when you have to start over.

Normal people do this. 

They’re continuously in a cycle of starting and stopping, of trying this and then trying that, of looking for the newest workout, the newest supplement, the newest diet that will give them their dream body now. 

Unfortunately, they will be going through this cycle forever, always searching until they finally give up and accept their excuses as reality.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Don’t do the normal things that all the normal people are doing. 

Be different. 

The first different thing I did was to start with a task so freaking easy that my mind could not possibly come up with a valid justification for not completing the task.

And trust me, at times, even when the task is ridiculously easy your mind will still hee-and-haw. 

And your mind is one savage negotiator. 

It’s like a five year old in a toy store. Nagging and begging and pleading until it eventually gets its way. 

Give your mind two or three weeks of going to the gym and doing those grueling workouts and it will revolt. It will suddenly remind you of how important it is to do the laundry. Or the dishes. Or the yardwork. Or to check emails.

It will insist you lay down and finish watching the TV series you’ve been neglecting.

It will barter. It will cajole. It will beg.

And that is your brain’s job. To keep you away from the things that will cause you pain and discomfort, and to bring you closer towards the things that will give you pleasure and safety. 

Your brain does not want to start as difficult as possible. 

That is not it’s job. That goes against it’s very nature. 

If you don’t enjoy HITT training, then your brain is going to give you a million different reasons why HITT training should not be done consistently.

If you do not associate a hard-core super restrictive diet as pleasurable, then your brain’s job is to keep you away from doing it.

Your brain doesn’t want to punish itself in the gym. It doesn’t want to walk from the gym hunched over with sweat pouring down its face. Your brain doesn’t want to brag about how sore its thighs are the next day.

Your brain doesn’t want to hurt. 

Consciously, you want these things because you think they will bring you to your goal quicker, but unconsciously your brain does not want to do these things because they are painful and cause discomfort.

And here’s the BIG lesson I learned:

If You Are Always Fighting Against Yourself, Then You Will Never Win.   

So in order to win the war against weight loss you must become an ally with your brain.

In order to do this, it’s imperative you start your streak with simplicity.