What We See When We Look Away
why we stall & how to fix it
A quote attributed to Henry Ford (a flawed figure, whose antisemitism is well documented) has stayed with me, not because of the man, but because of the truth inside his words:
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
At first glance, it reads like something we might find on an 80’s motivational poster maybe next to a cat hanging from a tree branch telling us to Hang in there! and, to be fair, it kind of is.
Yet when we’re trying to build consistency, it hits differently. It’s not just poster fluff, it’s a reminder of how progress actually works. There's this sting when we break the chain like we've ruined everything.
That’s not real life.
In real life consistency is about where we put our focus, over and over again.
When our eyes are on our goal…on our why…obstacles don’t disappear BUT they also don’t run the show. They’re simply the stuff we deal with on the way.
It’s when we lose the long view and start zooming in on every little frustration that the obstacles start to feel bigger than they are.
Suddenly it’s not “I had a hard day,” it’s “I'm just not the kind of person who can do this."
The shift from forward focus to frustration is what derails most people as it’s rarely the bad day itself: it’s the story we attach to it.
I see this frequently with coaching clients. They think they’ve fallen off track, when really, they’ve just momentarily lost sight of where they were going.
Here are three reminders I return to when I feel my focus slipping:
🚧 Obstacles are part of the road, not the reason to stop
Every goal worth pursuing will have friction. That’s not failure. That’s the process.
Consistency isn’t built on uninterrupted streaks. It’s built on learning how to re-engage after those interruptions. The faster and more gently we return, the stronger our consistency becomes.
The real work isn’t eliminating obstacles; it’s not giving them center stage.
⚠️ Our goals can withstand imperfection
We treat our goals as fragile, as though one missed day means we’ve broken something beyond repair BUT our long-term vision is sturdier than that.
Consistency is rooted in trust: I can keep returning. My progress lives in the returning and I suspect yours does as well.
⛽️ Attention is the fuel of consistency
The more we stare at what’s going wrong, the more power it gets. The more we reconnect to our why, the more manageable ANY obstacle feels.
Focus doesn’t erase hard things, it does keep them in proportion.
Consistency isn’t about never stumbling: it’s about getting good at coming back.
Keep your eyes forward. That’s where consistency lives.
Love love love this! I’m 59 and I’ve never had long-term goals. It’s never too late to start.
So, when I read this I'm immediately thinking of the streaks that So. Many. Apps. encourage users to not break. And I'm a user who absolutely HATES to break a streak. Word games. Health apps. Meditation. Duolingo. MY WATCH.
Here's the thing, though … extending those streaks is more motivating than a cat-hanging-from-a-tree poster. I wrote in my journal yesterday that I've become a slave to my Apple Watch, but in a good way. Closing all three rings every day has helped me navigate stairs, become more fit, feel more confident. All because I'm simply moving more, and moving every day.
An acquaintance suggested (thinking I didn't like being a slave to the streak) setting an end number. I thanked them for sharing. And continued my streak.