Too many men are entitled
Men are moving like women these days
Constantly expecting the universe to give them handouts
The universe doesn't work like this
You have to earn everything you want
Ask yourself - "Do I deserve what I want?"
Whatever the answer is - keep working
“If you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves” sounds like a throwaway line from your grandmother, but the sentiment is unbelievably accurate.
Think about it this way…
Any large accomplishment is essentially just a sequence of smaller accomplishments, made up of micro accomplishments, created by individual actions.
It would be reductive to say that winning the 100m sprint olympic medal is achieved simply by putting one foot in front of another.
But from a simplified, practical perspective, that’s kind of how it works.
By focussing on doing the small things well, and taking pride in them being done properly, you start to build up larger gains.
Now in each individual instance, choosing to do the activity properly or not doesn’t seem like a big deal, and only has an imperceptible effect.
But over time the gap between those two realities widens as the gains and losses compound.
Becoming 1% better every day makes you nearly 40x better by the end of the year.
Becoming 1% worse every day makes you only 3/100ths of what you were when you began.
The challenge is that the route of not doing things properly tends to be easier in the short term.
While the pain of taking the shortcut isn’t felt until the future.
So you need a way to remind yourself that doing everything the right way is a priority TODAY.
My suggested approach for this is to use a mantra.
Let’s say you’re faced with the choice between doing the washing up now or leaving it overnight until the morning.
Or going to the gym when you don’t fancy it.
Or hitting the snooze button when you’ve got a busy day.
Or replying to a DM from a hot guy or girl on Instagram when you know your partner wouldn’t want you to.
You can use your mantra to remind yourself of the big picture, third party perspective.
My two favourites for this are:
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
and
“Don’t practice what you do not want to become.”
They remind us of the long term effects of our actions.
And that excellence is achieved through commitment to integrity and proper actions every day.
If you can continue to focus on doing the small things as well as possible, your life WILL improve as a byproduct.
Sir David Brailsford credits Team Sky’s dominance in cycling to the power of doing small things well.
If it’s good enough for one of the best coaches in the toughest race on the planet, it’s good enough for us.
Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.