Tag Archives: Consistency

Chased By Marines

Thomas Jefferson is a guy whose name can cause some reaction.

Some people love him, some people hate him.

Whatever you feel about him, try and put that aside.

One of my favorite quotes of his has absolutely nothing to do with politics or economics or anything normally associated with him.

The quote?

“The sun hasn’t caught me in bed for fifty years.”

Despite how you may feel about the dude, you gotta respect somebody who gets up BEFORE the crack of dawn as a matter of course.

This isn’t easy by any stretch.

One of the most difficult things to do for us modern humans is respond to our own incentives.

For example, suppose you joined the marines, and were shipped off to boot camp.

If you KNEW that waking up even one minute late would mean you and your friends running all day, waking up would be easy.

Anybody could wake up in those situations.

Or if you went away to some weight loss camp, where there was literally NO FOOD to snack on, anybody could lose weight in those situations.

These are situations that have EXTERNAL incentives.

Responding to those are AUTOMATIC.

One time I ran a 10K.

I was pretty out of shape. My goal was to run it in less than an hour, which is pretty slow.

But I was very lucky.

Because about a hundred meters behind me, for the entire race, was a group of marines.

And they were doing their marine “chant” the ENTIRE race.

It was very easy to imagine they were CHASING me, and I had to stay ahead of them.

This EXTERNAL incentive helped me achieve my goal.

The thing is though, that ANYBODY can pretty much do ANYTHING if the external incentives are strong enough.

What’s really powerful is if you can set and respond to your own internal incentives.

Getting up at the crack of dawn when nobody but you is going to know.

Sticking to your diet when nobody but you is going to know.

Hitting your financial goals when nobody but you is going to know.

Because if you CAN create and OBEY your own internal incentives, you can do ANYTHING.

Any.

Thing.

Luckily, you DO have an internal guidance system.

One that you may have forgotten about.

Or worse, one that you may even think is your enemy.

In its current state, it can certainly seem like an enemy.

But if you can understand why, you can recalibrate it.

And turn it into your most loyal friend.

A friend whose support will help you create and obey any internal incentive you want.

To get anything you want.

Learn How:

Ego Taming

How To Generate Momentum

When I was a kid me and a couple friends discovered the secret of making a snowman.

Growing up in an area without snow, we would go on these field trips in elementary school.

If you could find a gentle downward slope, and the right kind of sticky snow, you could get a pretty huge ball.

As soon as we “discovered” this “secret” we started coming up with wild imaginations.

Like making a ball as big as a city, that would roll down and wipe out civilization.

Of course, this metaphor is pretty common.

Not the wiping out the city part, the “snowball effect” part.

Where you put in a lot of effort at the beginning, and then the momentum of the system is enough to keep it going.

You can see it in a lot of places if you’re looking.

Crowd behavior, viral videos and social media posts.

They start slow, but they can multiply very quickly.

But it’s really cool when it happens to you, in a personal way.

Take exercise for example. Most people realize they should do more.

Long time ago, I started jogging. At first, it sucked.

Got tired quickly. Was sore. Shin splints.

I saw it purely as a means to an end. I wanted to shrink my gut. So I figured I’d have to put in work, to get the results.

But once I started getting into shape, something interesting happened.

Instead of seeing the jogging part as “work,” or a means to an end, it became an end in and of itself.

Because I was getting in pretty decent shape, my thoughts could actually wander while I was out jogging.

And for about twenty or thirty minutes every day, I was in a pretty cool state of mind.

That SAME activity turned from a means to an end, into a end to a greater end.

This is the crux of all snowball effects.

When the momentum of the “system” kicks in, and starts to become self-sustaining.

Because we are humans, and we always need to be moving, and eating, and sleeping, we can’t really switch ourselves into autopilot mode.

BUT when the tasks required to build a decent life for yourself (studying, practicing skills, journaling, talking to strangers, speaking in public, etc.) become ENDS instead of MEANS, that’s when the magic happens.

That’s when you start to feel alive. On purpose.

That’s when people will ask you, “man, what drives you?” And you won’t really know.

It will just FEEL right. Good. Natural.

It takes a while to get there, but when you do, there will be NO stopping you.

Get Started:

Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Are You Waiting For One Weird Trick?

I used to know this kid in Junior High School. His dream was to become a professional dancer.

He spent a lot of his time working on his moves. Later he invited me to one of his shows. He was in a dance troupe, and they were pretty impressive.

This wasn’t a normal kid. Most JHS kids don’t know what they want.

Not only did this guy have a clear idea, but he spent a lot of time practicing.

If you saw some guy walking down the street with massive arms, what would you think?

He’s got some kind of lucky genetics, and he was born with huge arms?

How about seeing some guy at a party, who can juggle sixteen things at once?

Would you assume that he’s some kind of latent gift that the rest of us don’t?

Probably not.

You’d probably assume, at least on some level, that he’s spent a lot of time practicing.

And most of the time we see somebody with a finely honed set of skills, we just assume they had a lot of practice.

But some of the most important skills, we don’t see them as practice.

We, for some reason, see them as things some people can do, while others can’t.

Like talking to strangers with confidence, or being able to give a persuasive speech.

In reality, anything that somebody else can do, you can do.

Sure, some things are easier for some people, but so what?

Yes, some people are “lucky” in that the things they are naturally good at can make them a lot of money.

You can still do the same things they can, it just will take some practice.

Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

Ideally, you’d find something you enjoy doing, so you’ll enjoy learning it. That way you won’t mind practicing for a few years before you get good enough to make a lot of money doing it.

But most people don’t like to hear this.

They’d rather take a magic pill or learn some ancient secret discovered in a cave in the Himalayas.

But consider this.

According to the laws of economics, something is worth a lot of money precisely BECAUSE so few people can do it.

Which means if you’re waiting for “one weird trick” to make it easy, it’s going to be the same “one weird trick” that everybody else knows.

And if everybody else can do it, it’s not going to be worth much, or be unique in any way.

The good news is that because most people are too lazy to learn, all you’ve got to do is spend some time learning.

So long as you are committed, you’ll get there.

And when you do, you’ll have a set of skills few people know about, let alone know how to practice.

Get Started:

Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Are You Letting Others Choose Your Life?

I used to do a lot of backpacking.

Once me and a buddy decided to take the back route to Mt. Whitney.

Most people go in through the front, so it’s really crowded.

But the back way in is a lot less crowed, and therefore has a lot more wide open meadows and streams and lakes with a lot of fish.

The back way to the top is a five day hike. The front way is two, one if you start at dawn.

The first day was the worst. Fifteen miles. We wanted to push over the first pass, which was very difficult.

One stretch of about two or three miles was particularly grueling.

A long, uphill walk on very loose gravel.

It was so loose that simply walking forward, by pushing off with your feet you lost a little ground.

But once we got over that first pass, it was magnificent.

A HUGE valley with several small lakes. Plenty of fish. No other people.

On the other hand, I’ve been car camping quite a bit. Where you drive right up and park.

Sometimes people even sleep in the car. You can bring huge coolers filled with food straight from the grocery store.

It’s only sort of camping if you sleep outside. But nothing comes close to sleeping on the ground, under the stars, knowing there’s no other people around for fifty miles.

Everybody wants more out of life. But few people are willing to put in the work to get there.

Some people spent a great deal of time, money and effort looking for “shortcuts” that will circumvent the necessary work.

If they’d spend that SAME amount of time, money and effort on ONE GOAL, for at least a year, they would make amazing progress.

Most any goal you want (at least that’s worthwhile) WILL take time. It will take effort.

And you will have those long uphill climbs that seem like you’re putting in TONS of work and not making any progress.

That is when it’s easiest to quit. To question your motivations. That’s when the self doubt starts to creep in.

You may even find that the biggest obstacles between where you are and where you want to be are your own doubts and fears.

Does this mean if you remove your doubts and fears your goals will magically appear?

Nope.

But the required ACTION to get there will be much more fulfilling.

So much so that you’ll enjoy doing it. Even if others think you’re crazy.

If you don’t take efforts to create your life, somebody else will do it for you.

Most people are content to do that. It’s safer. Less scary. You won’t get in trouble.

But you won’t get much else, either.

What do YOU want?

Get Started:

Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Jump Over A Tree

When I was a kid I was insanely curious.

As most kids are.

I broke a lot of stuff, just trying to figure out how it worked.

Being curious is a good trait to have.

But, you may say, “curiosity killed the cat!”

Sure, you can be TOO curious. Meaning you don’t know when to quit.

I ran into a morbid website the other day. Pictures of people just before they died.

How did they die?

By taking selfies.

In really messed up places.

It’s important to take risks. But if you take the WRONG risks, or too many risks, then you will end up dead sooner than you should be.

However, many people tend to take TOO FEW risks.

And that is the worst risk of all. Because if you are too risk averse, you’ll end up being USED by other people, or at least by circumstances.

Because if you NEVER take a risk, and ALWAYS play it safe, you’ll largely be dependent on others, or society, or the government, or the gods, or luck.

But the good news is that it’s pretty IMPOSSIBLE to take action, without a little bit of risk.

Nothing you do is certain. If anything WERE certain, that would mean you could predict the future.

And nobody can do that.

The trick (or skill if you prefer) is to always look for BALANCE.

The right amount of risk, balanced with the right amount of caution.

The right amount of curiosity, with the right amount of awareness.

It’s easy to get “stuck” in extreme view points.

But the magic is in the middle. Where the balance is.

Where you’re on the edge of your current level of skill. When you’re just straddling the outside edges of your comfort zone.

Not hiding in the middle, nor blasting away without a second thought. But slowly, carefully and courageously expanding it.

Once upon a time there was a kid, who wanted to become the best jumper in the world.

So he asked his local martial arts guru what to do. The guru planted a little sapling.

And said, “Every day, jump over this.” And left.

He came back ten years later, and that “kid” was now leaping over a huge oak tree.

All you’ve got to do is choose SOMETHING. Something small. Half risky, half safe. Half curiosity, half knowing.

And SLOWLY push out the limits of what you can do.

If you did that with your brain, imagine the life you could be building.

Instead of waiting around hoping for something to “happen,” like most people do.

Get Started:

Intelligence Accelerator