I think about the debt I’ve avoided…
I think about the tens of thousands of dollars I’ve saved…
I think about the people I’ve repelled and the ones I’ve attracted…
I think about the time I’ve saved, the space I’ve created, and the contentment I’ve cultivated…
And I think about how one of the best decisions I ever made was that I didn’t need luxury in order to live my best life.
P.s. I also published: A Motivational Excerpt From Tom Brady’s Hall Of Fame Speech—”You Don’t Have To Be Special…”
If I offered you $1,000,000—would you take it?
…I’m going to assume yes.
If I told you the only stipulation is that you don’t get to wake up tomorrow—would you still take it?
…I’m going to assume no.
Which means—now stay with me here on this one—waking up tomorrow is worth more to you than $1,000,000.
So, do me (and yourself) a favor if you haven’t already and recognize that in this moment.
…Feel the true luxury of being able to live in this moment—a luxury worth more than $1,000,000. Try to fully experience all of the things that $1,000,000 can’t buy. Take the almighty dollar sign off that pedestal and shift your focus towards the things that really enrich your life experience.
…And do me (us) a favor and read this again tomorrow.
Cheers to another day (really) richer.
Modern society prescribes a pretty generic path to “success” that amounts to something along the lines of: Good grades in school –> Good grades in college –> Good performance reviews in career –> Good compatibility in marriage –> Good financial situation from earnings –> Good kids who get to go to a good school and start the cycle over again for themselves –> Good retirement knowing you did well for them as parents –> Good grandkids –> So forth.
What’s fun to think about sometimes is how the generic path to success has nothing to do with your path to success—because it’s something that can only ever be defined by you.
…And how your path could change at any point along the way that amounts to something more along the lines of what success feels like to you, by you. Maybe including deviations like –> Crappy grades in school so picked up a trade / specialty skill instead. Or –> Took a gap year after school and traveled on the other side of the planet, just because. Or –> Had a really cool business idea and was aligned with really cool people so went for it. Or –> Was sick of my daily grind so started a side hustle that turned full-time hustle online. Or –> Got offered a once in a lifetime opportunity and I said “Yes.”
What’s even more fun than thinking about the above… is doing the above. The generic path can be fulfilling—no doubt. But, there’s also no doubt that the path filled with deviations concludes with a little more certainty—a knowing of what came from the thoughts instead of being left at the end of the generic with a haunted feeling of… “What if…”
There’s no success without alignment.
…Which is why it’s crucially important to find alignment before you ever chase any kind of success.
Inner Work Prompt: What does “success” look like to you? Are your means in alignment with that end?
P.s. Need help finding alignment? My guide, The Art of Forward: Direction > Speed can help. Now 30% off for a limited time.
1) There’s no winning or losing—only learning. The person who wins, but doesn’t learn anything—loses; the person who loses and doesn’t learn anything—loses; and the person who has a plethora of experiences, but never learns anything from them—loses. Learning is what it’s all about. Extracting information from raw experiences that you can then use to guide you forward, upgrade your thinking, improve your processes, make better choices, and challenge yourself more appropriately in the future—whether you win, lose, or just participate makes every experience a win for living.
2) This is just the beginning. The fixed mindset says, “What I have is what I’ve got.” And when we say things like, “I can’t do that” or “That’s just the way I am” or “I’m hopeless”—what we’re really confirming is a fixed mindset way of living. We’re saying our brains and bodies won’t improve or adapt with appropriate challenge, deliberate practice, and communal support. Which, of course, just isn’t true. Our brains and bodies are brilliantly designed from millions of years of evolution to adapt to the challenges they’re exposed to. Which means it isn’t that you “can’t do it” …it’s that you can’t do it yet. It isn’t “just the way you are…” it’s the way you are for now. And you’re definitely not hopeless… you’re actually just at the cusp of a new, humble beginning.
When you know you can learn something from every experience and that you have the ability to grow, adapt, and improve both your body and mind… what could possibly stop you from moving forward in life?
Plant seeds early and often.
Needing fruit today and not having planted any seeds for that fruit will bear you zero fruit.
And while today is the worst time to plant a seed for a fruit today, it’s simultaneously the best possible time to plant a seed for fruit in the future. In fact, there could be no better time than today to plant your seeds since, you know, there’s no planting seeds yesterday.
The life reality is: you get the fruit only after the seed has been planted, cared for, and nurtured to the point of being ripe—on its own timeline, not yours. And not every seed will take. And not every seed will bear perfectly ripe fruit. And not every seed will survive to adulthood/fruition.
But, if you plant seeds early and often… and you do so abundantly and carefully… and you keep investing time and energy into those seeds’ future… fruition will soon come. And you’ll get to enjoy your season of harvest after having endured many seasons of patience and hard work. This is true for relationships, career, finance, health, education, and so on.
Don’t wait until you need the fruit to start planting the seeds.
Seed planting and care should happen early and often, at each available moment, today and every day.
P.s. What I Learned From Losing In A Seed Growing Contest… And I tried really hard to win, too.
I asked two mechanics the same question today: “My check engine light came on for no apparent reason… everything seems to be working fine… could you do a diagnostic check to see what’s causing it?”
Mechanic #1 quickly said, “For $135 an hour I can. And it’s not as simple as just plugging in a diagnostic device—it could take one to four hours.”
Mechanic #2 said, “Sure. Can you bring it in Friday? It should only take us a few minutes to figure out what’s causing the light to turn on and we can decide how to proceed from there.”
…Guess which mechanic I’m choosing?
Not just for this time around… but for all my future time arounds?
And I bet if I wiped all of Mechanic #1’s car knowledge and he was in the same boat I was in… he’d choose Mechanic #2, too.
When you’re in business… you’re there to do business—I get it.
But, when you treat customers like numbers and not people who would like to be treated just like you would if you were in the same situation… I suspect it won’t be long until there won’t be too many “numbers” left for you to do business with.