A lesson I wish I learned earlier: Think in decades (even while you act in days).
Daily discipline without long-term direction is dangerous. You get so focused on moving that you stop asking what you're moving toward. You optimize for the days and forget the decades. And slowly, without realizing it, you drift away from what you were actually trying to build.
There's a question I often ask myself:
How would you approach what you're doing right now if you knew you'd be doing it for the next ten years?
The question helps you avoid the short-term traps that plague every endeavor. Chasing trends at the expense of authenticity. Chasing value extraction at the expense of value creation. Chasing money at the expense of energy.
The question can be applied to every area of life:
How would you approach this relationship if you knew you'd be in it for the next ten years? You wouldn't approach it as a transaction, with your hand out, looking to extract value.
How would you approach this workout if you knew you'd be training for the next ten years? You wouldn't push yourself to injury chasing a single session.
How would you approach this work if you knew you'd be doing it for the next ten years? You wouldn't cut corners to hit an arbitrary quarterly result.
Think long. Act now.
My perfect day looks extremely boring:
- 4:30am: Wake up
- 4:30-5am: Reading
- 5-8am: Deep work
- 8-9am: Family breakfast
- 9-11am: Lift/run
- 11-12pm: Family lunch/walk
- 12-5pm: Deep work
- 5-7pm: Family dinner/hang
- 7-8pm: Sauna/cold/reading
- 8-8:30pm: Hang/show
- 8:30pm: Sleep
I wouldn't change a thing. Boring is seriously underrated.
A Monday morning question for you:
If you want a plant to grow, you can fuss over it every day—watering, weeding, moving it toward the sun. Or you can place it in the right soil and let nature do most of the work. A seed planted in the right spot often thrives on its own. Life is much the same. Progress is not only about how hard you work, but also about where you decide to work.
Where is your energy better spent right now: pushing harder or planting yourself in better ground?
If you keep breaking promises to yourself, you’re training yourself to not trust you. And then you’re shocked you have no confidence. Confidence is just kept agreements.
It always takes longer, costs more, and isn’t as easy as you thought it would be.
And the expectation that it shouldn’t, just makes it take longer, cost more, and be even harder should be.
Major life trap: Getting your dopamine from information gathering. Dopamine from information is a dangerous drug. Your entire life will change the moment you stop looking for more information and start acting on the information you already have. Get your dopamine from action.
Not really one to post photos like this, but I have to say with time, pressure, dedication and patience one day you’ll get where you want to be. #neversatisfied @ The Lofts at Ponemah Mills https://t.co/LHS6kcyGTN
Cant believe the time flew by so fast. Big big thanks to my dad and Sonny for giving us food to eat, a bed to sleep on and many great adventures. See soon Ak ✌🏼#alaska @ Kenai, Alaska https://t.co/WGvCLRbMV8