The Fantastical Case of “Empty Reps”

One of the biggest lies in the human experience is that hard work will get you what you want. As a massive fan of hard work, effort, “reps,” and the rest of the synonyms out there for our share, it’s a bit confusing reconciling that first sentence. 

That’s, of course, because not all “reps” are created equal. Think about the things you do most regularly in your life. You probably cook a little bit each day or week. You write emails, drive a car, and do all kinds of things that you still aren’t incredible at. What’s confusing is how much practice you get at all of these things. 

The culprit? Empty reps. 

Just because you were there, doing the work doesn’t mean something transformative happened. That’s because not all practice is created equal. That’s the good and bad news of it. 

The bad news is that you’re literally setting time of fire with how you’re doing most of your work, practice, “reps,” etc. The good news is that you’re already doing these reps, so just imagine how much better you can get when you bring some rigor to the repeated efforts that aren’t making you better.