One of the fundamental differences between successful people and average people is the concept of delayed gratification. In any endeavour in life, whether it’s fitness, personal development, finance, relationships, love, friendships or work, it’s all about doing the little things over a long period of time. It’s about mastering the mundane things every day, knowing that if you repeatedly do the things you’re supposed to do, one day you will reap the benefits. It’s about persistence, not perfection.

Fitness is a great metaphor to life. Delayed gratification is the perfect example of this. Let’s say you look at yourself in the mirror with your shirt off, on Monday morning. Maybe you like what you see. Maybe you don’t. Let’s say you go to the gym and get a workout in. Maybe you get three workouts in this week. That’s great. You’re kicking ass. You feel great. Well, come next Monday, you’ll look at yourself in the mirror once again and you’ll notice nothing has changed. You likely look the exact same that you did a week ago. Does that mean that what you’re doing isn’t working? Hell no! You crushed three workouts this week. You’re doing great! But your mind tells you, “this isn’t working” or “this is too hard” or “what’s the point?” and maybe you quit.

Fitness is a life long journey. You don’t wake up one day in the best shape of your life. It’s the little deposits made every day when you choose to show up to workout. It’s the little decisions you make to eat a bit healthier. It’s delayed gratification. It’s doing the right things on a consistent basis, knowing that if you do it for long enough, you will reap the benefits. We all know what we need to do to get in shape. We need to move more and eat a bit healthier. So, why don’t we do it? Why do we do it for 30 days and then quit when there are no noticeable results? We know that if we keep going, we will reap what we sow. If we just keep the faith, show up every day and execute, the results will come.

And it’s not just fitness. It’s everything. In our relationships and our friendships. We know that if we just show up and do the little things for our spouses on a consistent basis, our relationship will be better. We know that our friendships will be stronger if we check in and do the little things.

We know that we will be crushing it at work if we just do the things we’re supposed to be doing, rather than sitting on our phones and social media all day and putting in a lackluster effort. It’s comes back to delayed gratification. Maybe you don’t get that promotion or pay raise after 90 days of executing at a high level. But eventually it will come. We just need to keep executing, keep the faith and trust the process.

Maybe you’ve heard the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree. Maybe you haven’t. It’s a powerful lesson on delayed gratification and the perfect metaphor for what I’m talking about.

The Chinese Bamboo tree, like most plants, requires effort and nurturing for it to grow. It needs sunlight, soil, water on a consistent basis. The difference between this plant and others is that during the first year, there is literally zero signs of growth happening. Nothing. Two years after planting the seed, there is still zero growth above the soil, despite regular sunlight, water and fertile soil.

Year three goes by. Still nothing.

Year four. Nothing. Four years after planting and there is still no growth above the soil.

In year five, however, if it has received consistent attention in the form of water, sunlight and soil, the tree grows 80 feet in six weeks! 80 feet in six weeks, after four years of zero growth.

But was there really zero growth in those 4 years? Did the tree really grow 80 feet in six weeks? Or was it the consistent nurturing of the plant over 5 years that made it grow? After six months of nothing, if you would have dug up the soil to check on the seed to make sure everything was alright, it would have ruined the tree and stunted its growth.

No, the tree didn’t grow 80 feet in six weeks. The obvious answer is that it took 5 years of consistent attention to build a root system, a solid foundation to allow the tree to grow 80 feet in such a short amount of time.

Now let’s go back to literally any of the topics mentioned at the start of the article, whether it’s fitness, finance, relationships, friendships or work. Consistency, delayed gratification and faith in the process are the three keys to success in any endeavour. You know what you need to do to succeed. And if you don’t, learn what you need to do and consistently do those things. Rinse and repeat.

Be that one person in a hundred who actually sticks to what they say they’re going to do. It’s right there for the taking. You just need to keep going. Even on the days where you don’t want to keep going. You just can’t go on any longer. The world has knocked you on your butt. You feel like throwing in the towel. You’re bored. You’re stuck in a rut. You’re tired. Whatever excuse your mind has conjured up. Keep going. Don’t stop. Keep making those daily deposits in the bank of you, knowing that if you stick with it long enough, you will get exactly what you set out to get. The only person stopping you is you.