It's About The Reps

Years ago, I read a story about a professor teaching a class in pottery.  He instructed the students to break out into two groups.

One group’s assignment was to create as many pottery bowls that they could in one session. Their focus was quantity, and they would be graded based on the total weight of what they produced.

The second group was to create just one bowl in the session.  And they would be graded on the quality of that bowl.

When the session was over, each group presented their pottery bowls.  After the grades were distributed, the teacher asked the first group to display all the bowls they created and the second group to display their one bowl.

He’d made a mark on the bottom of the quality bowl so that nobody could clearly differentiate it amidst all the bowls.

Then he asked the entire class to determine the bowl that had the highest level of quality. What they picked was a surprise – it was one of the bowls from the group focused on quantity, not the one focused on quality.

The lesson: Quantity leads to quality by force of repetition and the natural progression of progress.

That’s it. It’s all about the reps.

As we come into the new year and cross the threshold into 2021, most people have one obvious goal – end COVID. 

But now ask what proactive things you can do to impact the most important parts of your life in 2021. I mean real change if that’s worthwhile. Family, health, faith, income, finances, hobbies, education, career -what matters most? Then, what can you do daily to grow in those areas? It’s actually pretty simple.

And then apply the quantity principle. Don’t try to make it great right away, just make it a little bit better every day.

Reps.  Do it often. Do it consistently. And then keep doing it.