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.
.…They don’t.
21/30/60/90 days isn’t the amount of time it takes for a hard task to become easy.
…It’s the amount of time it takes for you to not forget to do the hard task(s).
Many people get this twisted.
Hard tasks, generally speaking, never get easier.
The 21/30/60/90 day mark is simply how long it takes for you to integrate a new habit into your lifestyle—it’s the getting to and the starting of the task that gets easier.
Remember this the next time you commit to a new lifestyle habit.
Day 22/31/61/91 is going to be just as hard as day 1. You’re delusional if you think otherwise.
The key is to make sure that the pace you’re setting for yourself at the outset is one that you’ll be able to maintain far beyond just 21/30/60/90 days.
Good measure is to imagine how you’ll feel about your new lifestyle habit on day 9,000.
Do you think you’ll still be doing the task in question?
Proceed accordingly.
The reason most people have a hard time with discipline is because they choose not to take small, easy, confidence-building steps.
THIS is what makes discipline hard.
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.
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:
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?
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.
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.
In today’s media driven world, there’s a ton of pressure to grow personal media accounts.
Which isn’t surprising because if what everybody is talking about is their favorite influencers, viral content, and follower counts—then, of course that’s what’s going to be at the top of everybody’s minds.
But, never let vanity growth take priority over interpersonal growth.
Like, when you feel obligated to consume all of your favorite creators new content, to post x new items to your socials, and to get that big project done for more revenue—but haven’t done anything for yourself…
…That’s a problem.
Maybe not immediately because maybe you can pull it off.
But, long-term? It will be. Because an absence of personal growth indicates a presence of personal atrophy.
And personal atrophy can only be hidden behind creative marketing for so long.
Eventually, people see through the shiny packaging and absorb the raw content for what it is.
And if what it is is regressing, then it won’t be long before they move to a different place where there is growth.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to influence more people or make more money.
There is something wrong with prioritizing those things at the expense of your interpersonal needs.
And not just because, you know, mental health, but because interpersonal growth IS the means to any worthwhile/ meaningful vanity growth.
So, remember, when you only have time to do one or the other, doing something for yourself should always get the priority.
Even when vanity growth seems to be the only thing everybody else is concerned about.
**Especially when.