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Category: Doing What’s Hard

Befriending The Ego

“The body is the first student of the soul.”

Henry David Thoreau, via MoveMe Quotes

…And the ego is what intercepts the soul’s communication to the body.

If we don’t learn how to befriend the ego—it will always be our enemy.

What makes the ego our enemy is its relentless desire to choose immediate over delayed gratification. The ego wants comfort now. It wants pleasure now. It cares nothing of later.

And it is in this one main desire—to seek immediate pleasure and avoid immediate pain—that our body suffers. Because what’s generally good for us is what involves delayed over immediate gratification.

If we want our body to succeed—the soul’s first student—we need not underestimate the ego and its deceptive, cunning powers. We need to come prepared. Like a parent ready to confront a moody toddler that’s about to choose violence.

We need to keep our beliefs clear; our boundaries enforced; our strategies at the forefront of our mind; our patience overflowing; and our love (not our tolerance) unconditional.

We have to find easy (easier) ways to do the hard things now, so that we can achieve the later outcome of peak overall health that each of our souls want us so badly to achieve.


For more thoughts on the ego, you can browse my collection of 45+ quotes & resources here.

The Goldilocks Task

The things you do daily shouldn’t be misery inducing.

They also shouldn’t be challenge-free and mind-numbing.

The things you do daily should be somewhere in the goldilocks middle.

Easy enough to show up for (even when you don’t want to); hard enough to keep you from atrophy or regression.

Get this balance wrong and you’ll either burn-out (and yo-yo) or blow out the flame of your potential.

Two consequences that are happening far too often in our society.

It’s time to level up your Goldilocks game, eh?

Just For Today

…What a beautiful mindset for getting things done long-term.

Committing to something for months/years/life can be intimidating.

But committing to today?

No problem.

Just for today: read, write, draw, exercise, meditate, etc.

And simply repeat this mindset again when you wake—tomorrow.

Lego House Or Skyscraper?

Daily affirmation: “I am not building a Lego house.”

Continued: “I am building a skyscraper. I am building a towering and intricate legacy of work that deeply reflects a long-lasting and firm commitment to steel, brick, and mortar—not cheap, plastic toys.”

Repeat as needed when things get tough.

That Painful Thing

You know what hurts more than doing that painful thing now?

Doing that painful thing later.

It’ll be the same painful thing, but add to it all of the painful thinking between now and then and stack it all on your shoulders?

Yeah, I don’t know who needs to hear this, but just do that painful thing now.

Your shoulders could do without all of that extra weight.

When It’s Hard Is When It Matters

Mad respect to the woman I saw out running today…

  • in 40° F temperature
  • while it’s poring rain
  • on Christmas morning

…I have a solid feeling she’s gonna crush her goals in 2022.

What are you willing to do to achieve your goals in ’22?