Your future is created by consistent habits, not the dreams you have.

Dreaming and visualizing a bright future for yourself or your team is important. Having a vision provides hope and direction. But the only way a dream becomes reality is through consistent habits.

Performance coach Amber Selking once gave me my favorite definition of a habit. She described it as “something you do so often it becomes the essence of your being.”

Habits start as a thin string. The more consistently you practice them, the more they turn into a strong rope. When you think about applying this to your own life, it can feel overwhelming, like the change required is too big or too far from where you are right now.

Instead of thinking about it that way, I’d encourage you to adopt what is commonly called the 100 Hour Rule.

The idea is simple. If you do something for just 18 minutes a day, over the course of a year, you will accumulate roughly 100 hours of practice. That alone would put you ahead of about 95 percent of the world in that skill. You might not become Tiger Woods in golf or Bobby Fischer in chess, but you would be better than most people.

So let me pose a simple question: What could you do for 18 minutes a day that would meaningfully improve your life?

The honest answer to all of those is yes. It doesn’t require special talent or perfect conditions. It just takes effort, desire, and a little planning.

The hard truth is that most people would rather watch someone else be great or complain about not having the right genes or circumstances. But that doesn’t have to be you. Once you recognize that progress comes from consistent habits and simple systems, you realize something important.

Both are in your control.

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