Brian Johnson relates Tony Horton’s 'wet dish rag' voice-of-consistency metaphor to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). He explains accepting unhelpful internal voices, recommitting to chosen virtues (e.g., disciplined, calm, confident...), and then acting despite lack of motivation — illustrated by his morning workout. The episode encourages accepting inner resistance and choosing integrity with values to get work done.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic one. At our last one, we talked about Tony Horton and his wet dish rag theory of motivation. As you may recall, he, like all of us, has a few voices in his head. There's the angel, the devil, and the voice of consistency. It's the voice of consistency that gets Tony to do what needs to get done, whether he feels like it or not. That consistency guy, Tony says is about as exciting as a wet dish rag, but he gets the job done. Now, as I was thinking about Tony while finishing that AM workout I didn't feel like doing, I realized that Tony's approach was a perfect application of acceptance and commitment therapy or act as we've discussed. Check out the notes on get out of your mind and into your life. With act, you accept your current reality, including the voices in your head that may or may not be contributing to your well being. Then you commit to doing the things that will help you create a life based on your values virtues. So how did that play out for me this morning? Well, I'm no longer naive enough to think I need to feel motivated to do the things I commit to doing. So when the meh I don't feel like working out voice showed up in my head this morning, I could see and accept it for what it was. A normal, albeit unhelpful voice we all have. Then I could remind myself of the virtue values I had just committed to embodying via the Heroic app that morning. I am disciplined, calm, confident, strong, grounded, energized, tranquil and poised. Then I decided to live in integrity with that commitment as I strapped on the heart rate monitor and got to work. And that's today's plus one. Don't feel like doing what you know is best for you. Got voices in your head barking at you and telling you all the reasons why you shouldn't do what you know you really want to do. Perfect. Accept the presence of those voices. Commit to living in integrity with your value virtues. Then get out the wet dish rag and get to work. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go. Little P s that day one all in, let's go is the voice of consistency.
