Are you the enemy?

Most of us want a great outcome but don’t do the things necessary to create it.  In fact, we may be doing things we know will hurt our chances.

Fun and dopamine hits are all short-term.  We can’t wait.  So we sacrifice fulfillment and our future to them.

We prioritize the short term over the long term.

How are you complicit in creating what you don’t want, or blocking what you do want?

Learn new things

People that consciously set out to learn new things are happier and more motivated.

What are you learning that you want to learn now?

Understanding what you are doing and why.

There is a big difference between memorizing and understanding.

In school, we memorize to pass a test.  But we still don’t understand until we get out there and try things ourselves.

When you memorize a process or script, that’s not the same as understanding what you are doing and why.

People that have context, experience, and understand the big picture and the emotions that people involved have will be prepared to master the field and move on and up from it.  

Overcome fear

Fear holds people back.

Fear of failing.  Fear of losing money.  Fear of being emotionally or physically hurt.  Fear of being rejected.  Fear of being criticized.  Fear of looking foolish.  Fear of poverty.  Fear of success (that’s not like me).

The people who develop courage and overcome fear are the most successful.

“Fear is a requirement of courage.” – Eddie Rickenbacker

Like a bodybuilder uses iron to develop muscle, use fear to develop confidence.  A bodybuilder uses small weights first.  Small steps into fear…and more steps from there.

Read from paper pages before sleep

Screens keep you awake at night and prevent you from getting enough sleep for two reasons. 

Blue light makes your brain emit chemicals that keep you awake and the content is endless and irresistable.

Get into bed and shut the screens off.  Read instead.  Read from paper pages.

Goodnight…..zzzz…..

You Can

You can do amazing things, but you can’t do everything.

Choose.  Choose a lofty worthwhile goal that you have a strong desire to achieve.

Break the work necessary down into parts and get started on what you can do now.

If you want it bad enough, take massive action, and don’t quit, you can do it.

Your thoughts and beliefs run your show

We create our own realities according to our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations.

So spend time building, improving, and managing them.

Where do your thoughts, beliefs, and expectations come from?

What you learned and are learning, your environment, the people around you, and the story you tell yourself about what happened in the past.

These you have control over.  Once you get your thoughts, beliefs, and expectations aligned with what you want, you will become whatever you want to.

Sleeping enough for a good day

For most of us, sleeping enough to have a good day means going to bed early five days a week.  You can sleep in on the weekends, but not during the week.  

If you wake up and you’re tired, and try to offset this feeling with caffeine and sugar, you are not going to have a good day.

Shut the screens off and go to bed early.

Airplane behavior tells a lot

When I fly I notice what other people are doing, and it tells me a lot about who they are.

Most people watch movies, play games, sleep, drink alcohol, or do nothing at all.

It’s a free country, and I am not saying that anyone should do any particular thing.  But looking at it from the perspective of explaining why people are where they are and get what they get, you can see why.

As for me, I value time.  I use the time on airplanes to read, study, capture good ideas in my journal, and to plan.  I bring a journal and colored pens and use the time productively.

It’s funny that I get the marketing material for private jet sharing and I think to myself, “Why would I want to pay all that money and lose that productive time?”

If you want to break free of the crowd, you have to think different than they do, and act different than they do.  If you want to be normal, do what everyone else does and get the same results.

It doesn’t mean you don’t play.  I have plenty of fun.  (For me, my work is fun.)  I go on many adventures with friends and people I love.  But the story of my life is that when others were watching TV and social media, relaxing and passing time away, I was using that time productively to study and learn and getting better.

Do that for 20 or 30 or 40 years and you’ll wind up in a very different place.

Do you REALLY want it?

Everybody wants things.

Do you want a fitter body?  Yes

Do you want better relationships?  Yes

Do you want more money? Yes

So why doesn’t everyone have these things already?

“If you don’t get what you want it’s a sign that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.”

So the question is “What do you want bad enough that you will pay the price for?”  Those are the things you will get, and only after you have paid the price.