There are many areas in life when success is within our reach and we don’t realize it. The cause: We don’t try often enough, for long enough, and we lack the required intensity. The cure: Increase your frequency of concentrated effort. Increase the duration you exert this effort. And, increase the intensity with which you work on your projects and ideas.
Exercise is a good example of the power of frequency, duration and intensity. Those who do not exercise at all, have no frequency. So, the first step must be to increase the frequency of exercise to at least once a week. Once you have your frequency up to 4 to 6 times per week, the next step is to increase the duration. Initially, a sedentary person might only walk for 5 or 10 minutes. However, with consistency in their frequency, their duration can quickly increase to 30 to 45 minutes per walk. Finally, after frequency and duration are at good levels, to increase ones physical conditioning, we increase the intensity of your walks. The easiest ways to do this is to first walk faster and then, perhaps, add in walking up and down hills or other inclines.
Using this process, the once sedentary person becomes the physically fit person. The person who already exercises regularly can also benefit using this process by gradually increasing each of the three in his or her routines.
Exercise is probably the most familiar example of how frequency, duration and intensity interrelate. However, they can help you in many areas of life. Do you want to read more books? Do you want to start a hobby? Do you want to earn more money? With each of these, look for ways to increase your frequency and duration of working on them by dropping non-productive habits or ritualized behaviors. Work on your time management skills and you will find the time for frequency and duration. Then, when you do work on your projects or goals, be intense. Avoid distractions. Stay focused, and concentrate on one activity or project at a time.
Whenever you face a challenge, whenever you feel you’ve experienced a setback, or whenever you wonder why you have not made more rapid progress, look at the situation. Ask yourself if frequency, duration or intensity might have caused the current situation? You will often find one of the three is the cause of the problem. The good part about that is, that frequency, duration, or intensity will also be the solution to that problem.
Tim O’Brien writes continuing-education courses and presents seminars on stress management.
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