The One Thing
there is no one thing you can do that will change your life because no one thing works without collaborating with another thing reading books and studying theory changes nothing if it is not accompanied by discussion, questioning, action, and evaluation
no one part of your body keeps you alive, the heart is useless without blood vessels or blood, so no, stop looking for that one thing that will change it all
Behavior
Who here goes into their WhatsApp, goes to their status, and checks the people that viewed that status update? Why do you do that?
If it took you more than a second to answer that question then chances are, your response was a confabulation (a false reason that came after the fact just to explain away the act),
If we’re being honest with ourselves, some of the things we do are emotionally pleasurable but have no logical sense, and some are downright dangerous and destructive
Like buying hot wings because you’re craving them and then justifying it by saying you’ve earned them because you worked so hard at your job or the gym
Or telling someone shit and then justifying it by saying that they needed to hear the truth when the truth is that you just wanted to vent and they were just unlucky to be in your path
Your Other Self
This is happening because there are two you’s, your conscious and subconscious, your conscious is lazy and your subconscious is compulsive, worse yet, your conscious mind prefers to do things that are labor-intensive and avoid mentally strenuous things
It always takes the easy way out when it comes to this part
This is why you work a 9-5 as a slave but can’t finish a book to save your life, because the 1st one can be mindlessly done, even though it may be difficult and the other requires intention, conscious awareness, and focus
This is why you are busy as shit but haven’t progressed an inch in the past year
Purpose or Reason
Reason dictates that if something hurts, it must be avoided, if it is scary, it must be avoided, if it is difficult, it must be avoided, if the chances or success are low, then…
You know the drill
Unfortunately, difficulty, fear, pain, all these “negative” perspectives, and emotions are relative, they are not the same across the board
When you are in a dark room in your house, and it is nighttime, you’re in your bed and heading to work tomorrow, you feel relaxed, you fall asleep
But if it is dark, in an alley, in a strange neighborhood, notorious for crime, that same darkness causes fear and anxiety
the same things that caused fear when you were young, may now go without notice or even cause pleasure, i.e. as a female, breaking your virginity hurts, but the same sexual intercourse on following occasions causes multiple, full-body orgasms that wet the surface on which you lay, causing blurry vision, erratic breathing and an almost out of body experience
Let’s pause the reason talk for a second
If you are driven by purpose, depending on the strength of that purpose, you push past your base instincts, your logic and reasoning, and your feelings
The purpose is what makes a mother jump in front of a blade to save her child, it is what makes a monk light himself on fire to bring attention to a cause, it is what makes a man work 16 hour days for 15 years to give the woman of his dreams the life she’s always dreamed of
It is what makes athletes/soldiers endure ungodly amounts of torture, pain, and training to reach their goals
So ask yourself, in everything you’ve done today, did you do it because it made sense to do it, or because it had to be done to reach a goal?
The Blind Test
Now just to make sure that this is not just another intellectually stimulating post that leaves you no better in the physical world than you were before you read it, we now have to move to practical’s
No Theory/Piece of Information is worthy of your time, attention, and energy if it cannot be applied or put into practice somehow, somewhere, or on something/someone
Take a piece of paper, write down all the things you do exceptionally well daily, from brushing your teeth to your favorite workout
Now pick one activity from that list
Put a camera in a favorable location to monitor you
Now close your eyes and do that activity to completion
Once you are done, stop the recording but leave the camera there
Now put on headsets, put on very loud music, press record, and do the activity again
Once done, stop the recording
Record the third video of you doing the activity with only one hand
Then finally do the activity with only one leg
Now watch the videos and be completely honest about how well you did
the first two handicaps are meant to show you just how something as seemingly insignificant as sight or sound is so pivotal to you being able to complete an otherwise very simply activity
the second two handicaps are meant to indicate to you how situationally dependent your ability to do things is, they should show you that without certain advantages, you are far less likely to successfully and competently complete simply tasks
Final Words
Now that you realize just how mortal and dependent you are on your senses and the simple things your life just to get through the day
Write a list, of all the things you want to be, then write a second list of all the things you want to have, now write a final list of all the things you want to experience
With these three lists, you should start being honest with yourself about exactly what it will take, physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, financially to have, be and experience those things
Now break those things down into the smallest, simplest steps you can take today, at the end of the day, evaluate how you did, then write a list of the smallest, simplest steps you can take tomorrow, then wake up and do them first thing in the morning
To change your life will require honesty, endurance, a high pain threshold, consistency, guidance, and clear goals
Leisure is not as much of a necessity as most of us would like to believe, and if you truly want to grow, become more, have more, it must be the first casualty of your cause: drinking craft beer with the guys, wine with the girls, PlayStation, mani/Pedi, watching the game or real housewives, all of this must take a significant hit because the time used for them is the time that must now get used for growing and improving
“Better Well Said Than Well Done”
Jim Kwik
Go Begin
Voice Of Mechanics 