Lots of folks struggle with consistency this time of year. If you’re one of those people, don’t sweat and don’t beat yourself up – you’re not alone. If your routine tanked during hunting season and that decline is creeping into the holiday season, perk up and keep reading. I have strategies for you to get back on track and avoid getting off track next season. Let’s get started.

Strategy 1: Redefine Success

If you’ve read my writing or listened to the HPPM podcast, you’ve likely heard me say that consistency is the most important variable for long-term results. Sink that into your brain and take it with you into the next paragraph.

Your workouts and the rest of your routine don’t have to be perfect right now, they just need a place. 

A while back I ran a coaching and consulting company for personal trainers and strength coaches. Trainers face a common problem when they get good at their job and start getting busy – they neglect their own training. A big reason for this is that they have a paradigm in they follow too strict of a training paradigm. They get locked into all-or-nothing thinking. That sounds like, “If I can’t do the whole workout, it’s not worth doing any of it.” This, dear friends, is not true.

Remember, consistency is the most important variable. Sometimes we must modify our training to maintain consistency. In the case of the trainers, I coached them to break up the segments of their workouts and do them throughout the day. For example, power training during their first break between clients, then strength training during their second break between clients. This solved the problem of having only short periods of time to use throughout the day. You can principally apply this strategy to any busy schedule. But begins by letting go of perfect and latching onto consistency.

You might think, “Man, I only have 25 minutes to train today.” That’s fine, do what you can with those 25 minutes. Success is no longer based on completing the full training day and it’s shifted to getting what you can done in 25 minutes. Maybe that’s just your warm-up and your main strength exercises.

Before hunting season, success might have been five days per week of training. Hunting season and the holidays might reduce that to two or three days. The problem is, that lots of folks fall into the all-or-nothing trap. They think that it’s not worth it to train since they can’t get a full five days in. But if they redefined success to two or three days of training, they’d maintain consistency and make it much easier to get back into their full-scale routine after the holidays.

Don’t walk yourself into all-or-nothing thinking. Redefine success to maintain consistency.

Strategy 2: Do It First

Maintaining a routine sometimes requires a change in routine. Do the thing you want to be consistent with before anything else can get in the way. Get up 30 minutes earlier if you need to, and do the thing. It won’t be comfortable, but the payoff will be big. Rather than trying to rebuild your consistency in January, you’ll already be consistent. And, if you want to, it’ll be easy to shift back to your normal schedule.

Strategy 3: Remove The Barriers

I’m not ashamed to admit that there are times when I don’t feel like training. Everyone feels that way from time to time, and the feeling hits us harder when we’re busy (like, during hunting season and the holidays). We only run into problems when we act on feelings instead of our values. So, even when I don’t feel like doing something, I still do. But it’s not always what’s planned. (Once again, consistency is the most important variable.) I’ll give you an example.

Sometimes the resistance hits me in the form of not wanting to load a bar during a strength session. I’ll walk into the gym and think to myself, I don’t feel like pissing with all of this. Maybe it’s my subconscious telling me that I don’t need any more tension. Rather than letting the resistance win, I do the same movements with dumbbells or kettlebells. 

Chris Merritt and I use this same strategy with the special operators we train. We make training modular. They often don’t have access to a full gym when they’re on missions or on the road for training. So, we coach them to do the fundamental movement rather than hyper-focusing on the specifics. For example, if they’re supposed to do hex bar deadlifts but only have access to kettlebells, they could do swings or kettlebell RDLs instead. Doing the foundational movement matters more than the specifics – and consistency matters most.

So, if you feel the resistance, remove the barriers. In my example, the barrier was getting all of the shit out to strength train. I use kettlebell or dumbbell variations instead of barbell variations. Training isn’t perfect, but it still happens. That’s the most important thing.

Fight your feelings by removing the barriers.

Maintain Your Routine

Redefine success. Do it first. Remove the barriers. Do these three things and you’ll be much more likely to maintain your routines throughout hunting season and the holidays. That momentum will accumulate wins and set you up for success at the start of the New Year.