Don't let one bad thing ruin all the good things. Bad thing happen in isolation and shouldn't be allowed to spread to your overall behavior. Shrink time to task. Trade distraction for fast action, make your thoughts real by acting fast, getting ready is procrastination. Work on your daily goal until it is reached. Focus on the inputs (doing x for y hours per day) then on the goals (do x until y is achieved, no matter if it takes 1h or 12h), then mix both and stop once one of them is reached. The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding. Don't work hard the wrong way on the wrong thing. Working hard is the key to joy as you'll be accustomed to any side effects. Enjoy the life you have as you wanted it a few years ago. If you don't, you won't enjoy the life you're dreaming of as well. Your wants have less stakes than your haves. Success is like the horizon, it takes one step back for every step you take forward. The goal is to work hard and benefit from the side effects, you will get accustomed to what you'll get along the way. Your best day are the ones where you left nothing in your tank. No one is watching you except yourself, be honest all the time. The work that matters is the one that no one sees. Work harder when no one watches, that who you're really are. Bare witness to yourself of what you're capable of, you're not full of shit. Act as is you couldn't be punished, that's who you are. The hardest jump is speaking your mind which leads to a change in behavior in a positive way, people want true honesty and predictability. Be truthful of why you don't want to do social thing ("my calendar is empty and I want to keep it that way") as you have no social obligations, only social consequences. Power follows blame, change yourself then change the world. The thing or person you're accusing is the thing or person you're giving power over your life, hence only blame yourself and your actions. Accept an idea of you you can live up to. Love the views and the climb. Everyone is jealous of what you got, no one is jealous of how you got it. People view the trophy but no the training ground, they want the view but not the climb. Only winners love the climb and the mountain of life has no peak, the view is there at any step. Be the positive reinforcement you need as long as it takes. Loving your work will make you work even more but the tools will feel lighter. Preserve your attributes and find your playground. The bigger the goal, the longer it takes to reach it, the more trust you must have to combat the lack of feedback. The top players get 80% of the cake. Challenges are selection criteria that draws criticism from the fainthearted. People criticize those who have no fear to try, it helps them to justify their cowardice. Taking a decision is easy but staying consistent with it is harder. Befriend uncertainty. When you have nothing, trying costs you nothing and makes you dangerous. Play until you win in a world where people are afraid to try. Time is your most important currency. Your free time doesn't belong to other people, it's your most valuable asset. Your future life will be the outcome of how you use your time today. Some inconveniences are the price of doing good: jealousy, fines, critics. To any cynically-witty critic, answer positively. Being great at something takes hundreds to thousands of hours of focused hard work. Hard work isn't objective, some people say they've worked hard after 1h. There are only 3 to 5 things you can get good at in life. Behaviors are sets of skills. The more you master a skill, the more way you can win. Positive reinforcement loops scale hard. Feelings, traits, and intuitions don't matter, only skills do: you are not charismatic yet because you haven't mastered x y z skills. Operationalize anything, break things down. Are you willing to give up x for y? Learning means same conditions new behaviors. Intelligence is rate of learning, how many productivity/life podcasts/books will you need? If your behavior didn't change after reading or watching something, you've wasted your time on entertainment. Motivation is catching up deprivation. What you lack is what motivates you. Find the others. The more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider. Being exceptional requires being an exception. If you can't explain your beliefs, they're not yours. The mean doesn't exist. Be right on outsized bets. Criticizers are often correct but aren't when it matters. When you do more, you get better at doing. The point of the game is to keep the game going. No one is the richest man forever. People only notice when you win which makes success feels like it happen overnight. Journal your journey to remind yourself of the past. Try, best case you win, worst case it won't matter. Anxiety is having many options but no priority. There is no perfect way to live your 20s, 30s, 40s, and life in general. Don't think in balancing daily life, embrace whatever season you're in. For a comparison, think about your calories for the week rather than for the day. As long as you get what matters most, you can be flexible if you have a long enough time horizon. Periodize aggressively. Sadness feels like hopelessness because you have no perceived options, which makes figuring things out the solution. It takes 1/10 the effort to maintain a skill than it is to gain it, go hard for a few months than maintain what you've learned. The bar for winning has never been so low. Getting in shape and making money will teach you skills applicable to many things in life. Most people are overweight, poor, and distracted as it is never been so easy to do nothing. Your competition has never been so low meaning it's never been easier to stand out. The bigger the goal, the bigger the timeline, the easier is it. Change the circumstances to change the behaviors. Some behaviors have several good outcomes like going to bed early: no drinking, sleeping well, no car accidents, etc. Set the alarm for when to go to bed. Having a dog could work as it brings love, responsibility, and walking but it costs too much and brings upside you can have elsewhere. Change your most frequents meals for healthier ones with lots of protein and do sports. Clues are over-rated. Say "I don't know" when you don't. What kills you is the things you think you know but just ain't so. The past doesn't exist, it's gone. Things aren't bad, they just are, thoughts aren't true, you are defined by your actions, not your past. Ignorance is the only evil, knowledge is the only good. Increase the likelihood for good behaviors to happen to you. People actually want to hear what you think, say your truth more than try to please them, but have your own truth instead of repeating something you've heard. Just because you feel something doesn't mean you must act on it, wait it out. Your past isn't your fate but your origin story. Preserve your teeth for later on and your teeth will soon be gone, sharpen and strengthen them now. The more you bite, the stronger your jaw.
Alex Hormozi