We all have days where giving 100% of our effort brings little in return. We feel as though we’ve failed somehow, that there’s something wrong with us, that our abilities are somehow flawed.

It’s inevitable. Off days happen to the best of us.

But being pretty good, or even just ok, every day is better than a few great days.

It’s easy to be fooled by a day of highly productive work. When we triple our normal output, we reward ourselves with a day off, maybe two. We tell ourselves that we can slack for a while and make up for it with another big day.

The problem is that those days are rare — just as rare as the bad days.

That’s why consistency is so important.

Average output over time will not only make up for a handful of bad days but will yield far greater results than an occasional day in high production.