Using the "Seinfeld Strategy," you can stop procrastinating on your goals
The “Seinfeld Strategy”
Brad Isaac was a young comedian who was just getting started on the comedy scene. He ended up in a bar where Jerry Seinfeld was performing one fateful night. In an interview with Lifehacker, Isaac described what happened when he approached Seinfeld backstage and asked for "any ideas for a young comic."
Seinfeld stated that the best way to become a great comic was to
write better jokes, and the best way to make better jokes was to
write every day.
He advised to purchase a large wall calendar with a full
year on one page and put it on a prominent wall. The following
step was to obtain a red magic marker. He explained that for
each day that you complete your writing work, you get to put a
large red X over that day.
"You'll have a chain in a few days." Just keep going, and
the chain will get longer day by day. You'll enjoy seeing that
chain, especially after a few weeks of practice. The only thing
you have to do is not break the chain."
You'll notice that Seinfeld said nothing about outcomes.
It made no difference whether he was motivated or not. It
didn't matter whether he was making good jokes or not. It didn't
matter if what he was working on was ever going to be a show.
"Not breaking the chain" was all that mattered.
And this is one of the easy secrets of Seinfeld's
extraordinary productivity and consistency. For years, the comic
was solely concerned with "not breaking the chain."
Athletes, musicians, CEOs, and artists are all more consistent than their contemporaries in their respective fields. They show up and deliver day after day, while everyone else is bogged down by the responsibilities of daily life and struggles with procrastination and motivation.
While most people become demotivated and off-track after a poor performance, a lousy workout, or a bad day at work, top achievers return to their routine the next day.
The Seinfeld Strategy works because it shifts the focus away from individual achievement and toward the process. It's not about how you're feeling, how inspired you are, or how wonderful your work is on that particular day. Instead, it's simply a matter of "not breaking the chain."