Consistency Over Perfection

When 10 Minutes is Better Than Zero
by Ethan Zong

The other week, I almost skipped the gym because I told myself, “If I don’t do a full hour workout, it’s not worth going.”That thought actually stemmed from perfectionism: all-or-nothing rules that make small efforts feel pointless. Instead of moving my body for 20 minutes, I nearly did nothing at all.

In CBT, All or Nothing Thinking is a common cognitive distortion where we see situations in extremes, with no middle ground. In this mindset, things are either a total success or a complete failure, people are either “all good” or “all bad,” and efforts either “count” or are “worthless.” 

One way I used to challenge this thought is through a behavioral experiment. 
My experiment was simple: I went to the gym and told myself I’d just do 15 minutes of cardio, then leave. I wanted to test the belief, “If I don’t do a full workout, it won’t count and I’ll feel worse.”

Here’s what actually happened: once I got in, I stayed for 30 minutes. Not an hour, but definitely not nothing. And when I left, I felt better—not because it was “perfect,” but because I showed up. The thought that “less than perfect isn’t worth it” didn’t hold up when tested.

All or nothing thinking says effort only counts if it’s all-out. Behavioral experiments prove that “good enough” not only counts, it often leads to more than we expected.

​So here’s the challenge: Next time you feel like skipping something because you can’t do it perfectly, try a 10-minute version. See how it feels. You might learn that consistency beats perfection every time.