The Power of Streaking

Last week, I logged my 100th consecutive day of exercise. What started out as an experiment to see how my body would hold-up with no “off days” has evolved into a set of lessons I didn’t expect.

Hint: the lessons have nothing to do with physical fitness

The last 100 days have highlighted revealed three powerful observations:

1. Streaks as a Tool of Transformation
2. Streak for Inevitable Compounding
3. Streaks as an Arena for Skill Acquisition

No, its not that kind of streaking

Here we go.

Streaks as a Tool of Transformation

Everyone I've ever known suffers from feelings of inadequacy in some area of life. We have internal narratives of why we’ll never get a promotion, lose the weight or find the right person.

The beauty of a streak is that the daily process dismantles limiting beliefs and transforms the way we see ourselves.

Before my exercise streak started, my cardiovascular shape was lackluster. Looking at my Garmin watch data from this year, I logged 10 total runs from January through June (when this streak began).

10 total runs in 6 months. That’s 1 run every ~2.5 weeks. My longest run distance during that stretch, a whopping 3.7 miles. This reality of my de minimis cardio, understandably informed how I perceived my fitness (mediocre).

This changed when I started streaking. I realized that in moments where I felt "exposed" or "insufficient" about my physical health, the presence of the streak  (x days straight) served as powerful evidence to dismiss these thoughts which didn’t serve me.

Who doesn't want to feel powerful, strong or capable? I know I do, but my mind often gets in the way. Small voices of self-doubt can quickly turn into a loud chorus.

Streaks are a powerful mechanic to dismantle the limiting beliefs we all face by providing objective proof to the contrary. Over the past 100 days, my self-image and self-beliefs fell in line with how I wanted to feel because I had proof… proof of the type of person I am becoming.

Inevitable Compounding Benefits

I’m going to keep using the fitness analogy because its easy, but who here has committed to a new fitness plan that calls for 3-5 days of running or visiting the  local gym?

I’ve lost track how many times I’ve picked a 'new' plan like this on the heels of a personal rut. This is how my progression usually goes:

1. "Its been months since I’ve consistently worked out, I should grab a new workout plan online"
2. "Better start small. Let’s try this 4 day plan." (Hopefully 2 of the 4 are “arm days” 🙂)

Life inevitably gets busy and stressful

3. “Well, today has been really hard, I’m going to take one of my ‘off days’ today”
4. Next Day - “Shoot, today was unexpectedly busy as well, and I’m just too tired. I'll use another rest day and catch up on my program later this week"

The pattern of rationalization and avoidance continues

5. I'm now off-the-wagon again

Does this sound familiar? This is a near blueprint I've observed in my own life.

The insidious part of this pattern is the time it takes to get back on track! I’ve witnessed weeks or even months come off the calendar before I get myself re-focused on doing the “thing” (in this example, exercise).

I'll be the first to admit, there have been multiple times over the last 100 days where I would go out and do the absolute bare minimum, which for me was running 1 or 2 miles.

Even on my absolute lowest days, the streak maintained the inertia necessary for me to get back after it the next day.

The result from these last 100 days wasn't that I worked out more vigorously. But rather, the daily commitment eliminated the loss of days, weeks or months that are normally required to re-establish momentum. The compounding benefits alone from not going off the wagon have the potential to deliver astonishing results.

Arena for Skill Acquisition

This may be my favorite realization: streaks are an amazing catalyst for skilling-up.

While I’ve noticed fitness improvement in the last 100 days, that is not the skill I'm most excited about. This experience forced me to develop a host of interpersonal skills which were necessary to nurture a streak of any length. Here are a few examples:

1. Getting really clear in my communication: whether with Sydney or colleagues, this streak forced improvement in how I communicated my plan for working out that day, while traveling, etc.
2. Rigorously allocating time for specific tasks: My work always expands to the time I give it. This streak forced me to get better at strictly allocating time for tasks to ensure they didn’t override my limited time for exercise.
3. Developing fortitude when progress isn’t apparent: There were countless days where I lifted less weight, posted slower mile times, etc. I subconsciously expect linear, day-over-day improvement, but this daily process forced me to confront the impracticality of this expectation. The skill for me was in learning to cope with the frustration which follows a lack continuous positive feedback.

Streaking was a function that forced me to skill-up in these three areas (among others) at an accelerated pace. The daily commitment to the “thing” inevitably will create uncomfortable situations, and it is in that discomfort where the opportunity to skill-up exists.

I don’t have a magic day count in mind for this streak, but the number of good days have far outweighed the bad. I’m eager to see what other learnings emerge from this process.

If anything in this post spoke to you, my encouragement is this: don't wait, dive right in! In this season of life, my “thing” has been getting back into shape, but for you it may be writing that blog post, starting that business, or learning how to cook.

Whatever it is, a little streak may be just the reprogramming needed to dismantle the stories and limiting beliefs that hold us back.

If you stack up a streak of any length as a result of reading this, even if its 3 or 4 days, I hope you will share that with me!

-- Ryan, ✌️