If you're going to start something new in 2025, you must be prepared to do it every day for a year. That's right, if you're going to start something new in 2025, you've got to be prepared to do it every day for the entire year. My name is Dave Lorenzo.

This is the Daily Dose of Dave on the Inside BS channel. Today we're talking about your goals for the year and breaking your goals down into habits that you can perform consistently. Consistency is the key.

Consistency is critical. I want to share with you a couple of quotes from books that I read that have really influenced my behavior. The first book was by James Clear.

It was a book called Atomic Habits, and there's a quote in there that I want to share with you. James says, I accumulated small but consistent habits that ultimately led to results that were unimaginable when I started. So these small habits compounded and they led to results for him.

This book, this quote inspired me to change the way I ate in 2024. Which resulted in me losing 40 pounds, which resulted in me improving my blood work, which resulted in going off of some medications that were used to regulate my blood pressure. I didn't need to do that anymore because my body's able to have normal blood pressure because I'm at a normal weight for someone my height.

The daily habit of just changing the things that I ate has made all the difference in my health outcomes and it has added years to my life. The calcium that deposited on the walls of my arteries that increased my cholesterol has been dramatically reduced. The tests have shown that.

And that's added years to my life. So the habits that you do every day lead to outcomes that can have a profound impact. I wanna share another example of the power of consistency with you.

If you read books or if you know anything about marketing, you know who Seth Godin is. Seth Godin these days is a marketing icon, marketing legend. I happen to be fortunate in that I have a very passing relationship with Seth Godin.

Seth lived in a town very close to where I lived when I wrote my first book, Career Intensity. And I, through persistence, was able to get in front of Seth and have him write a blurb for Career Intensity. And he was very kind in his choice of words in writing that blurb.

But the thing that has always fascinated me and the thing that I admire most about Seth is that Seth has always been a writer from the days of him being in the leadership of a company called Yo-Yo Dine and then in marketing leadership for Yahoo and then in entrepreneurial ventures that he's always been a part of and being a brilliant marketing thought leader and at the pinnacle of the Mount Rushmore of marketing. In spite of all of that, or probably at the foundation of all of that is a better way to put it, Seth has always been a writer. Seth has always been someone who has written.

He's written best-selling books. He's a phenomenal and prolific author. But the thing that I think contributes to Seth being a phenomenal author is the fact that he writes every day.

But don't believe me when I tell you that he writes every day. Type into Google Seth's blog or Seth Godin's blog and then go down on the left-hand column and look for the archives. And you can scroll back to 2002.

2002 was the first year that Seth began writing in his blog. And 2002 was the only year where Seth hasn't written every day. It was his first year.

From 2003 forward, Seth had at least one entry for every day of the year. Now, there may be days where he missed here and there, two or three days over the course of a year, but he's written more than 365 blog posts on his blog. So Seth defining himself as a writer is part and parcel of Seth writing every day.

If you asked him what contributes to his ability to write for business leaders so well, to write for entrepreneurs so well, to inspire marketers with the written word so effectively, if you ask him what he does that leads to that, I'm sure he will tell you that I am a writer and I write every day with remarkable consistency. If you want to be an outstanding professional speaker, you have to speak to an audience every day. You have to practice your craft.

You have to do it consistently. If you want to be a quote unquote thought leader, you have to practice thought leadership every day with consistency. So when you heard me just a few days ago while I was walking my dogs, and again, I apologize for the sound quality of that.

When you heard me a couple of days ago when I was walking the dogs on New Year's Day tell you that this is what I'm doing in 2025. I'm going to do a podcast episode every day and produce a podcast episode for you every day. The reason I am doing it is to increase the consistency with which I am sharing content in this form of media with you every day because I want to perfect this.

Five years from now, I want to have the number one business growth podcast on planet Earth. In order for me to do that, I have to be consistent in practicing, in delivering. The content is not the problem.

I have more than enough content and I have a wonderful partner who works with me on delivering content and sharing content with you. But my downfall in the success of any business that I've had has been that my success has plateaued when my consistency has waned. So this podcast, you and I together, this is going to be an exercise in consistency.

So my challenge to you is stay with me on this journey every day. There will be an action item that I give you to do every day and my action item is to come back tomorrow and do this again with you tomorrow. Your action item is to do whatever I recommend in the episode, in the show, and see what it leads to because I'm going to be thoughtful in creating these opportunities for you to build one on top of the other, the building blocks, if you will.

So on New Year's Day, I shared the podcast of me walking my dog. The days after, I gave you that three-session series where I taught people about persuasive communication. And today I'm giving you the five ways to drive behavior that leads to outcomes.

And I'm practicing what I preach with this show, with this podcast. So here are the five ways to drive behavior that leads to outcomes. The first thing you need to do is you need to make a commitment to the habits that will lead to the outcome.

And you have to accept that your first 30 days are going to be sloppy. Embrace the sloppy first 30 days. That first episode with a headset on, walking my dogs through my neighborhood with the terrible audio, we're gonna look back on that you and I together and laugh.

And believe it or not, that episode on New Year's Day was actually episode 674. So there were 673 episodes of podcasts that I had done before that one. That was the first time I've ever done it, walking my dog.

Now, why did I do it while walking the dogs? Well, I did it because I'm trying to figure out, and this is the sloppy 30 that we're talking about, the first sloppy 30 days, I'm trying to figure out how I can incorporate this into my daily activities so that it can be a consistent habit. And walking the dogs, I thought, hey, let me give this a try. Let me see if I can get this done while walking the dogs and see if it's acceptable.

Point number two in the five ways to drive behavior that leads to outcomes is your next 60 days after your first 30 sloppy days, your next 60 days will be you refining what you've learned in the first 30 days. I've already made some improvements. I've already figured some things out from that first podcast just four days ago where I was committed to doing this every day.

Your approach is gonna be very different if you're committed to a long-term gig versus a one-time gig. Doing a long-term podcast, doing something that has to happen every day, I think to myself, okay, well, I don't have time to do hair and makeup and video every single day if I'm gonna create a podcast episode every day. So some episodes are gonna be audio only.

And that's where the walking of the dogs came in. Can I do this while I walk the dogs? Can I do this while I clean the yard? Can I do this while I'm driving? I'm gonna have to try some things in order to make sure I can keep this commitment that I've made to you. I'm gonna have to do this while I'm traveling.

So I'm gonna have to create a podcast setup, a rig, if you will, so that I can commit to delivering a quality product to you even while I'm on the road. So your next 60 days, after your first 30 sloppy days while you're figuring this out, your next 60 days are going to be when you refine your approach so that you have some habits and patterns that allow you to do this one thing that you've committed to doing every day over and over and over again. Your next 60 days are going to be where you've incorporated it into your routine.

You've worn the grooves in your neural pathways to where it's like brushing your teeth and it's part of who you are. I'm talking about the podcast, but this could be something as simple as cold calling, or it could be something as involved as doing a written letter to a client, thanking them every single day, or writing five handwritten notes every single day, or practicing your instrument if you're learning to play a new instrument for two hours every single day, or sitting through 20 minutes of meditation every day. You're going to have to figure out a way to incorporate it into your routine, and after the first 30 sloppy days, your next 60 days are your days of refinement.

And then after those 90 days, 30 sloppy days, 60 days of refining, you have it down. You've made it easy, and you've made it so that you can do this on a replicable basis. The next three quarters of the year, the 75% of the year that follows, will be a routine for you, and that's when you develop mastery.

That's when you develop the mastery of your habit. So your first 30 days are sloppy. That's step one.

Step two, the next 60 days you refine it. And then step three, three quarters, 75% of the year, you're working on mastering that habit so that it's part of who you are. Now there's two more steps or tips I have for you here.

Step number four is to make the habit easy. That's what I'm talking about with the podcast. That's why I did the podcast while walking the dog the other day.

I thought, hey, that's easy. Slap on a headset, walk the dog. I have notes in my hand while I'm walking the dog, and I'm speaking to you, referencing the notes.

I'm sitting here now in my office, very relaxed, going through the five points on my notes with the references and the stories that I have written down so that I can share them with you and I don't forget them. And it's easy for me to do because it's audio and we're not gonna edit it, and it's gonna go up the minute I finish speaking here. So the habit is easy.

The microphone is set, the mixer is set. I just need to sit in the chair, push the button, turn the light on the button from green to red, and I'm recording. And I'm just referencing my notes.

As a professional speaker, I can do that for 15 or 20 minutes every day. So the habit is easy. The microphone is here.

The notes are written the night before. I just have to sit down and do it. And then the final point, the final step, is to make the habit, the act of doing this, make it the reward itself.

So many of us say, well, when I finish, I'm going to buy myself a present, going to do something nice for myself when I finish recording the podcast. And for me, I need to make the actual act of the podcast itself the reward. The recording of this, doing this, needs to be the reward in and of itself.

And once I make the act of doing this the reward itself, then I've won the battle. So to recap, step one is to take that first 30 days and be comfortable with the sloppiness of the first 30 days. Step two is to refine the activity, the consistency over the next 60 days.

Step three is to embrace the three quarters of the year that follow as I master the habit of doing the thing in the face of adversity, in the face of changing circumstances. And then step four is to make the habit easy. And step five is to make the habit itself the reward.

You can reward yourself after the completion of the habit, but the doing of the habit, that in and of itself needs to be the reward. Your consistency in developing the habits is going to pay off for you in the long run. This is our journey together.

This is your daily dose of Dave. We're here every day, you and I together. Tomorrow we'll be back at 6 a.m. So your homework, your takeaway, think of something that you'll commit to every day for the rest of this year.

I will be back here with you tomorrow at 6 a.m. for your daily dose of Dave. And that's my commitment to you. We'll see you tomorrow.