Rule Number One: Follow the most resistant path.
Now, this isn’t an absolute rule. Like, you probably have a lot of resistance towards driving into ongoing incoming traffic or throwing your laptop into a Lake, and that’s probably a good thing.
I’m talking about the internal resistance you feel when you think about doing something constructive, something that would move your life forward in some way or another. We’ve discussed resistance before in my “Reasons You Procrastinate So Much” piece. However, this type of internal resistance that you feel when you think about taking care of these things is also the same type of resistance that feels empowering to overcome.
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If we can learn not to shy away from this feeling but instead lean into it, we will find that our life will rapidly improve because the most rewarding things in life are hidden behind discomfort or resistance paywalls.
We purchase long-lasting orders and success in our lives through temporary discomfort. If we become aware of this weird little transaction that seems to be deeply woven into the fabric of reality, we can use it to our advantage. As we get better at willingly leaning into this discomfort of action, I’ve noticed that we’ll start to enjoy the feeling of resistance after a while.
The pain itself becomes exciting and empowering. I think this is because resistance is a source of power after we transcend it; once we go through this process of beating it frequently enough, our brain eventually starts to clue in. We’ll link this discomfort with empowerment, and we’ll get excited to overcome obstacles and challenges. Remember this rule when we overcome resistance, we absorb its power. The more excellent the resistance, the greater the leverage.
Rule Number Two: Don’t stop doing the things that got you out of a bad situation.
People are pretty hilarious sometimes. Most of the time, we know exactly what we need to do to stop feeling like crap. Like if we’ve worked ourselves into a hole, we’re playing more video games, we’re eating junk food, and we’re just not taking care of ourselves. We’re in this negative mindset, this self-loathing spiral. Eventually, this goes on for a long enough period that we ultimately snap.
We say you know what? I’m tired of living my life like a piece of crap.
Then we start changing our habits. We start eating better. We start going to the gym. We start getting our work done on time, and we start showering in the morning and dressing into something half decent. As we do this, we begin to feel better and better. We begin to feel more confident. We begin to feel more energized and better about ourselves.
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Since we no longer have that negative incentive to work ourselves out of the hole, we forget why we were taking care of ourselves. So we start to slip. We cut corners. We skip the gym. One day turns into two days, which turns into a week into a month.
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But have you ever considered what your life might look like if you didn’t stop doing the things that got you out of a bad situation?
Because in reality, there’s no secret to success. Success isn’t built by doing great, extraordinary things like banging out an entire book overnight 200 brilliant pages of literature. It’s not by going to the gym harder than everyone else that you’re motivated to go to the gym one time. You work out so hard that you explode into this meat mountain one day.
No!
Success is built by doing the same things every day over a long period. The key is to do these things long enough that they get locked in as habits.
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Habits, meaning that they’re easier tasks to do because that’s what happens when you engage with these things for long enough they’ll eventually just become a part of who you are. They’ll be easier to do than not to do. If this sounds miserable to you, know that it doesn’t have to be such a grind.
So start small. Try to implement a straightforward habit that you think you’re going to stick to lock it in for 30 days or however long it takes until you feel like it’s sticking. Then add a new habit and keep doing that until you’re in a place where you feel satisfied with your daily life and your daily activities. That is different for everybody.
But use your judgment.
Rule Number Three: Record, Record, Record
Some days, life deals terrible cards, and maybe something genuinely devastating happens to you. Your world and you have no idea what to do.And other times you have a fantastic day, you feel euphoric on top of the world, and you think to yourself.
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Instead of remaining utterly oblivious to why you feel good or bad, why not start writing stuff down and recording.Because when you do this, patterns start to emerge. You begin to realize that there’s an intimate relationship between your repeated behaviors and how they make you feel. Implementing is recording your daily thoughts is very important, either as a voice memo or as a written document on a piece of paper or a notebook.
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Once we start verbalizing or writing things down, taking our thoughts out of the weird nest in our head it’s easier to see our thoughts for what they are. It becomes tough to keep making the same mistakes.
Whether you’re recording your thoughts and feelings from a good day or a bad day, all information is good. Use this information to your benefit, and your life will dramatically improve.
Thanks For Reading! Hope these 3 things help you improve your life!