EveryDay Is A Baby-step
“To Begin, Begin.” William Wordsworth. Right now, you are probably running at 51% capacity.
Tomorrow, you need to start. Your life is literally passing you by and your ambitions are in the rearview mirror. Ok, I’m kidding. You are probably very young, but that is not an excuse to not be working towards your highest ambitions. I want to be very clear with you here in one of the cancerous lies that social media culture has embedded in us: things do NOT happen over night, or even in a year. Good Lord, if you follow any influencers or individuals who spout nonsense and post pictures for a living, unfollow them and put them out of your mind. You are literally feeding yourself psychological junk food by watching women who are sexy or whatever for a day job. It’s not liberating, its berating to the general public.
Life is a climb, and your job as a young person is to find affection for the climb. You must develop the skills, the passions and the hobbies to make that climb bearable. And if you’re ambitious, you’ll want to do more than your life than to spend your life in bars and die of heart disease at 60. You should want to make a difference in your community, and possibly even larger arenas at that. Even if you aren’t the next Tony Robbins, it is noble and honorable for you to aspire to be something more than mediocre. All ye who aspire to be mediocre, do not enter here.
Every single day is a baby-step. How was today? How will tomorrow be? You could be 1% better every day if you really wanted to. And while that sounds small… in one hundred days you could be an entirely different person—and that’s a fact. Here’s one of the most important things I’m ever going to tell you: you aren’t bad at anything. You don’t suck. You are NOT a failure. You just haven’t really committed… to anything. And you need to, you need to become something more than this. It’s scientific—you need a SCHEDULE. You need to write out goals every single day and collect those achievements. If you struggle to do this, it is okay—seriously. Many people struggle so much with getting started, and sadly that comes down to the psychology of the whole thing. Do you believe that you deserve love? That you deserve great things? Do you want to sellout your funeral? Do you feel you deserve that? You are not a catastrophe, you are actually so much closer to greatness than you think.
What if I told you that you could become something great tomorrow? Well, you can. If you start on those things you’ve been wanting forever, you are greater than most people. Most people will succumb to fear their entire life and die a 9-5er. And the next day? You’ll be even greater… exactly 2% greater. The depths of mental illness and loneliness can lie to you in that you are unable to achieve anything. The thing is, it’s super simple: follow one path, and stick with it. Do you want to wake up at 6:30am and go to the gym by 7? Then do it tomorrow. If you don’t get there until 8am, it’s ok. But the next day, you need to be there earlier. Keep going until your perseverance wakes you in the morning and takes you to the gym. One paragraph on your book is better than a blank page. So is an outline. The only failure is to stop.
You will never fail as long as you possess tenacity. You will succeed if you stay the course and possess a hunger for said thing. Do you understand how powerful that information really is? Read it again: you will succeed if you stay the course and possess a hunger for said thing. But you must trust the baby steps—it’s not going to happen over night. After you’ve achieved going to the gym by 7:00am, it’s time for another step towards the best version of yourself. Now that you’re at the gym, it’s time to change your diet to see the fruits of your labor. After you’ve done that, it’s time to stay the course. In a week, you’ll see a difference. In 6 months, you’ll look like an entirely different person—if you stay the course. You don’t suck, you aren’t incapable, you aren’t some black-sheep failure. Your success is out there waiting for you. Don’t let it dissipate when you die.
Once you stay the course of becoming a healthier person and establish your disciplined lifestyle, you’ll understand that life is much better this way. You’ll feel lighter, happier, more energetic. Other things will begin to follow that same disciplined life. You’ll push for a better career, for better relationships, and a better version of yourself. Remember the “Higher Self?” This is how you get there. Discipline is the secret to success and nothing else. That’s all the self improvement books you need to read. Obviously discipline can be something people struggle with until they die, you don’t have to. You must moderate your thoughts and commit to the thought that you no longer want to be who you were. Once you recognize the pitfalls of your previous lifestyle, you’ll begin to awaken into a new line of thinking for your future. If you can conquer the American diet, which is advertised 24/7 to us and 99% of it is fake food, what can’t you conquer?
You need to start consuming things that align with your goals. Motivational speeches first thing in the morning, motivational videos on your social feed, and start encouraging others out there. The comradery that forms when you encourage others is a contagion.
Stand up straight, with your shoulders back, and start tomorrow. Your children deserve to know the version of you that pushed for a better future. They will thank you through their health, and subsequent balance in their own adult lives that they learned from you. Either you change and live a fulfilled life with real purpose, or you die full of regret. Your choice.
