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Month: March 2022

Discipline Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

Published on March 31, 2022

The reason most people have a hard time with discipline is because they choose not to take small, easy, confidence-building steps.

  • They choose to sprint.
  • They choose to rush the process.
  • They choose to jump the high hurdles because they want results NOW.

THIS is what makes discipline hard.

  • You choosing a 60-minute body-destroyer workout vs. a 20-minute moderately intense one.
  • You choosing an insanely strict zero-sugar diet vs. choosing to adopt one new, healthy habit.
  • You choosing to hustle deep into the night at the expense of sleep vs. choosing to build in small, intentional steps each day.

If you want to make discipline easy—you have to make the daily steps easy.

Otherwise, doing the tasks that require discipline will always look gigantic, daunting, and intimidating.

This isn’t the path to a disciplined life.

Just Add Mindfulness

Published on March 30, 2022

Want to improve everything in your life?

Add mindfulness to it.

This came to me while lifting weights.

When I’m mindless, I’m focused on vanity metrics (e.g. how heavy can I go).

When I’m mindful, I’m focused on real metrics (e.g. how clean can I perform the move).

And being focused on clean form will result in far more benefit than being focused on sheer weight. Because the problem with “heavy as possible” is that, in most cases, the result is “cheating the reps.”

Either range of motion is shortened, momentum is counterproductively used, or bodily adjustments are made to make the movement “easier” by incorporating more muscle groups (that aren’t designed to be involved in the lifts).

Mindfulness makes us aware of these cheating tactics and reminds us to use lighter weights so that we can use full range of motion that’s free of momentum and is focused exclusively on the muscle groups that are being specifically targeted.

So, too, are the benefits of mindfulness evident in every other area of life:

  • Mindless mouth-stuffing becomes savory eating.
  • Mindless busywork becomes focused task completion.
  • Mindless word-gabbing becomes curious conversation.
  • Mindless weight lifting becomes deliberate strengthening.
  • Mindless media-scrolling becomes intentional consuming.

Mindfulness brings full presence to each task. And if the task is worth doing, you might as well do it right. Otherwise, why do it at all?

Come Alive

Published on March 29, 2022

The future is not “lost.”

We are not “hopeless.”

We are incredibly passionate, resilient, and innovative.

What we need isn’t a defeatist mentality.

What we need are more people to come alive and realize the impact their individual actions can have on the greater whole.

Upgrading Judgment

Published on March 28, 2022

Don’t be scared of bad judgment.

It’s where all of your good judgment comes from.

Be scared of not exercising your judgment at all.

It’s where bad judgment remains unchanged.

The Imposter Syndrome Antidote

Published on March 27, 2022

Imposter syndrome is the byproduct of being hyper comparative.

For you can only feel like an imposter if you have other non-imposters to compare yourself against.

The antidote then is to become non-comparative and hyper focused on building up the skills within the identity you want to not feel like an imposter in.

So, rather than compare yourself to the most skilled in your field, focus exclusively on developing the skills of the craft.

Because the cure for what feels like a lack of identity is the accumulation of more actions of someone who would hold that identity. Until eventually, you do it so much that you (finally) become a non-imposter.

This is all to say, if you want to embody the identity of a writer (and not feel like an imposter when you write) just freaking write more—and stop comparing your writing to the greats.

Early Rising

Published on March 26, 2022

How important is it to wake up early in the morning?

…Not that important.

What time you wake up is arbitrary.

What matters is what you do during your waking hours and how you prioritize your time.

Some get to bed by 9pm—others can’t go to bed until 12am.

Expecting both to wake up at 5am is silly.

Some people work better and are more efficient at night. Others in the morning. And others still, midday.

What’s important isn’t a specific time (because a successful person said that’s what they do).

What’s important is self-awareness.

Escaping Hell [Poem]

Published on March 25, 2022 
How do you tell someone
How to break free
from the grips of hell
When they’re the one
With burns
Cuts
Scrapes
Bruises
And gashes;

And all you’ve got are words
From unblemished pages 
And pure intentions