# How are you this consistent? - Author: Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz (@mfurkanyilmazzz) - Canonical: https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/how-are-you-this-consistent - Status: Testing (testing) - Topic: Effort and the long game (https://furkanmind.com/en/topics/emek-ve-uzun-vade) - Published: 2026-10-16 - Updated: 2026-10-16 - Language: en (translated from tr) - License: CC BY 4.0 - Note: AI translation of Furkan's Turkish original (Claude via MCP) — not yet reviewed. ## Thesis Consistency doesn't come from in-the-moment decisions but from breaking a long-term vision into small pieces and asking every day "what do I need to do today?"; and it doesn't last unless you keep your 10 units of focus balanced between work, family, health and friendship. ## Summary ## The question I get asked the most "How are you this consistent?" I hear this question a lot. To answer it, I did a bit of soul-searching. It turned into a personal episode. Let me say at the start what I'd say at the end: I see life as a game of finding balance. Whether you find that balance or not decides a lot. And you get consistency from long-term goals, not from in-the-moment decisions. Those goals don't have to be about work either. ## 10 units of focus For me the game goes like this: I have 10 units of focus. I split them between work, family, health and friendship (or social circle). Each one needs at least 2 points. If it drops below 2, that area slowly gets worse. That's very normal. We have limits as human beings, and there were times I lost this balance badly. ## It was as if I missed my son's second year There was a period when I was so focused on work that it was as if I never saw my younger son at age 2. I was working close to 16 hours a day. Maybe 5 points of my focus had moved to work. I think that was completely wrong. Life is the process of finding this balance. What you go through until you find it is what matures you. In your early 20s you don't really notice this. You think you can do all of it at once. In reality that's hardly possible. Accepting your limits as a human being is an important step, I think. ## You give something up to get something The world is full of examples. Elon Musk is extremely focused on his work, and his family life is very turbulent. Steve Jobs was extremely focused on his work too. He delayed the surgery he needed and lost his health in plain sight. In this game we keep splitting things up. While doing one thing, we give up another. In my early 20s my friendships faded a lot. At that age family, work and health feel like they run on their own, but each of them actually needs effort. After 25 I became more work-focused, and that left an area I'm still trying to make up for today. You won't always find the balance. You find it, and three months later you can lose it. Maybe what matters is simply being aware of it. However much someone tells you about it, I don't think it really lands until you live it yourself. ## Consistency: big picture, small pieces, today I told you about focus because of consistency. Being consistent requires keeping this balance. At the base of anything you do consistently there will be a long-term vision. A place where you see yourself. You'll move toward it by breaking it into small pieces and asking "what do I need to do today for that goal?" That's the only way you actually take a step. If you aim for big goals without breaking them into small pieces, staying consistent is very hard. Nobody reaches a big goal in a day. As you reach the small goals, you also see whether you can make the big vision real. ## 2019: one Ramadan of software In 2019 our jewelry business had gone under and we needed to make money from software. I was extremely focused on work then. It was Ramadan, and day and night I sat at the computer watching courses and applying them. It worked. There's this thing called the 10,000-hour rule. Maybe I got through in 2 years what would normally take 8 to 10. But to get there I gave up other things. It's always like that. Sometimes you put too many of your 10 focus points into one thing. That has upsides and downsides. It doesn't always pay off either. There were times we struggled for nothing. Looking back, I think we'd have been better off doing nothing and resting. Of course, that's easier to say after it's over. ## An example right in front of you I'm publishing this video series every day through October. That's my small goal. There's an even smaller one: coming in today and recording this video, and recording one tomorrow too. That fits into my long-term vision. I don't know if there's another way to stay consistent. My way is a game of approaching a long-term vision with short-term goals. ## Open questions - What's the earliest sign that an area has dropped below 2? - When is deliberately giving one area extra points an investment, and when is it a loss? ## Sources - Steve Jobs delaying his surgery: Walter Isaacson, *Steve Jobs* (2011). - The 10,000-hour rule: Malcolm Gladwell, *Outliers* (2008). ## Derivatives - YouTube video, How are you this consistent? (5:43, Turkish): https://youtu.be/cBGuZHcorVk ## Distributions - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzI-GeCsZDQ - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQu9KRJhf4 - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP6vc4el2jQ - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUsv9IX37zo - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg9HcPnttz8 - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U80uNis-ek4 — views 0, likes 0, replies 0 - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo--9bzrj10 - YouTube @Muhammed Furkan Yılmaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGuZHcorVk — views 1, likes 0, replies 0 ## Linked nodes - → related → Open tabs: the focus disease of the AI era (acik-sekmeler-yapay-zeka-caginin-odak-hastaligi): Running five or six jobs at once with AI feels like power, but it turns into being inside none of them, while the thing that actually adds value is depth. — https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/open-tabs-the-focus-disease-of-the-ai-era - → related → Pieter Levels: his worst year became the year that changed his life (pieter-levels-en-kotu-yili-hayatini-degistiren-yil-oldu): What makes Pieter Levels worth telling about is not the money he makes, but that in his worst year he set himself a goal to keep from losing his mind, told everyone about it, and that year became the one that changed his whole life. — https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/pieter-levels-worst-year-changed-his-life - → extends → Are we rowing for nothing? (bosuna-mi-kurek-cekiyoruz): The effort we put in does pay off somewhere, but usually not right away and not where we expect it; the only real measure is being able to honestly say yes to "did I do everything I could?" — https://furkanmind.com/en/mind/are-we-rowing-for-nothing