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Month: August 2021

The Secret To Building Self-Discipline

Published on August 9, 2021

The reason people fail to discipline themselves is because their “why” isn’t strong enough.

Many people’s “whys” are actually quite superficial. They’re focused on weight, waist size, number of abs showing, number of “0s” in the account, brand names, follower count, verified badges, etc.

The solution is to go deeper. And motivation will increase in proportion to the depth of the “why.”

For example, is the goal: weight, waist size, number of abs showing or is it really self-confidence?

If the goal is self-confidence and it’s being measured with a superficial marker like a scale—of course motivation will be lost when the scale yo-yos or doesn’t change.

If you’re going to stay consistent through the yo-yos and plateaus, you need to go deeper.

And if you don’t feel confident in yourself now, you need to figure out why.

Are you comparing yourself to who you were yesterday or other people? Do you hate the way being overweight feels? Does being overweight conflict with your identity?

Dig deeper into the real reason why you want to lose weight, reduce your waist size, and increase your ab count (or whatever) and align your actions with that reason instead—not number games.

E.g. I’m working out because I hate the way being overweight feels and I know that the temporary pain of exercise is worth more than the lasting pain of being uncomfortable in my own skin—versus—I’m working out to lose weight.

Remember: when you align your tasks with a strong enough “why,” you’ll be able to bear almost any “how.”

The Circumstances Of The Greats

Published on August 7, 2021

Let us not forget that today we are:

  • Feeling the same sun
  • Breathing the same air
  • Seeing the same sky

And are:

  • Confronting the same types of pains
  • Confined to the same 24 hours
  • And facing the same mortality

…As the greats that came before.

There is no reason why we too, cannot be great.

You Are Important

Published on August 6, 2021

You are important.

Don’t do unimportant stuff.

When you do unimportant stuff, you are subconsciously affirming that you are unimportant.

Because only unimportant people do unimportant stuff.

Treat yourself better than that.

Step up the importance of your tasks.

Do more of the things you think are important to do.

And do less of the things you know aren’t.

Start reaffirming to yourself that you are, indeed, important and worthy of completing important tasks.

Because you are.

How To Upgrade The Quality Of Your Life In 1 Hour

Published on August 5, 2021

You’re naïve if you think the media you consume doesn’t affect your mental health.

Just like you’re naïve if you think the food you consume doesn’t affect your physical health.

What do you think happens when you consume too much bite-sized, sugar-coated, empty-calorie content?

Probably the same thing that happens when you consume too much bite-sized, sugar-coated, empty-calorie food.

If you want your mind to be healthy and fit, you have to treat the media you consume the same way you’d treat the food you’d consume if you wanted to keep your body healthy and fit.

For food, you already know that if it’s in the kitchen, you’re probably going to eat it. Likewise, if the media is in your field of vision, you’re probably going to consume it.

Want to immediately upgrade the quality of your life in one hour?

Step 1: Unfollow, block, mute, and otherwise remove any and all sources of highly processed, click-baity, shallow content.

Step 2: Follow, subscribe, befriend, and otherwise immerse yourself in sources of nutrient dense, clean, trustworthy content.

You can do this for people, brands, and ads alike—for every media platform.

I know of no better way to disproportionately upgrade the quality of your life in as little time.

Big media isn’t going away. Vilifying big media for being sources of shallow content is lazy and irresponsible. About as helpful as vilifying grocery stores for carrying processed foods.

Those who take their media diet seriously will enjoy the same results as the person who takes their food diet seriously.

Ready to upgrade? I hope so. Take an hour and get to it.

The Perfect First Line

Published on August 4, 2021

I strongly disliked writing in school.

Mostly because I wanted to write my final copy on the first try.

Here’s how I remember most of my essay questions going: (1) Spend 75% of my time thinking about how the hell to write the perfect first line. (2) See another student hand in their essay and realize I was almost out of time. (3) Freak out! (4) Forget about the opening line and just start spewing everything I knew about the question before time was up. (5) Leave last.

It’s amazing how much more I got done when I stopped worrying about the perfect first line.

And later, when I learned how to accept the idea of rough drafts, suddenly, writing became a whole lot easier and much more enjoyable. Who knew?

Maybe if we learned how to accept “rough drafts” in life and dropped the idea of needing to start things “perfectly,” life would become a lot easier, too.

Unpacking Trauma From Your Bags

Published on August 3, 2021

Trauma comes from clinging.

Healing comes from letting go.

When you white-knuckle the trauma of your past, of course it’ll stay with you. You’re dragging it along with tightly clenched fists. It should be of no surprise that every time you turn around, there it is.

The first step towards healing, before you can move away from your trauma, is to loosen your grip and drop the weight of the baggage that you’ve been working so hard to carry. Baggage that was unfairly given to you—imposed upon you.

It’s not yours to carry. It was never yours to carry.

Once it’s dropped, check your state. Unclench your jaw. Drop your shoulders. Relax the muscles in your face. Take a deep breath in. And as you breath out, take a good hard look at everything you’ve been dragging behind. And not just the things at the top of the bag, but the things at the bottom of the bag, too. Confront it all.

You probably won’t be able to do this in one day, and that’s okay. Take whatever time you need. But make it (and keep it) a priority.

Then (and this is key) take from those bags only what’s of value. The lessons, the points of connection, the direction—whatever can be utilized—and leave the rest of that shit behind. If it has no practical use, then it has no use being in your bag.

When you repack your bags, pack light.

This is not the end of the journey for you.

This is but the beginning.

A Whole Slice Of Pie

Published on August 2, 2021

If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.

But, don’t let the love for what you do be your only priority.

Finding and committing to the right work is important, but living a balanced life filled with family, friends, and other non-work related experiences… is more important.

Three areas worth considering when thinking about fulfillment in life are growth, connection, and contribution.

Here’s the thing, if you’re one of the lucky ones who feels like the work they’re doing is helping them grow as a person, connect with beautiful minds, and give back to a greater good—you may feel like you’ve hit the fulfillment tri-fecta!

What you’d be missing, however, is your growth, connection, and contribution as a father/ mother/ husband/ wife/ son/ daughter/ brother/ sister/ friend/ lover/ grandmother/ grandfather/ uncle/ aunt/ cousin/ neighbor/ niece/ nephew...

Your growth, connection, contribution as an employee/ employer is but one dimension to the fulfillment whole.

And a whole slice of pie is not the same as a whole pie.