We all have the same 24 hours in a day. How we choose to spend it is our responsibility. To become my best at the Highland Games, it took years of consistent work. People often underestimate what progress can be made by daily consistent effort and managing your time with intention
During that chapter, I had a full time job doing outside sales, creating daily content for YouTube (no revenue for 5 years), trained 4 days a week lifting and 4 days a week throwing. My intention was to be my best at the things I was doing.
That meant that sacrifices were made in a lot of other areas. I quit partying with old friends, spent my days alone training, and traveling to learn as much as I could about strength and conditioning. I was reading a lot, writing books I didn’t know who would read, and my spare time was spent doing recovery work. I was being intentional with my time to maximize progress. The same rule applies to anything you want to get better at.
Your time has to be intentional in that pursuit. It’s amazing that people will say they want progress, or to get out of a shit job, or to make passive income, yet they won’t pick up the first book on any of it. They won’t try some new methods to access their best self.
People want to control outcomes from accomplishing their goals. I’ll find love when I lose weight. That makes the journey of weight loss secondary when that should be the primary driver and not just a number. Chasing a number results in fad diets, starvation, etc…then when the target is reached, you don’t feel different. Why? Because you didn’t do the work.
You didn’t arm yourself to be your best. You tried to get healthy by numbers. I weigh this, which means that I’m happy and healthy. The truth is, when you lose weight, you find love. When you embrace the process, you learn how to portion control. You learn what calories work for you on maintenance, and learn what foods respond best for you. You learn when meal timing keeps you at your most productive and how to manage hunger feelings. You figure out blood work and you get healthier by loving your body. You’re feeding it what it needs to operate effectively.
I am not talking about aesthetics here at all. Beauty is totally subjective. Health isn’t. To be different, you have to learn new skills, information, and keep testing to see how it works for you. For that to be productive you have to be consistent and disciplined so that variables are eliminated. Learn how to operate your machine to manage your mood, self worth, confidence, health, and motivation.
20 minutes a day doing something adds up to over 100 hours a year. 20 hours is roughly the amount of time it takes of focused intentional learning to fully grasp a new skill. While a long way from mastery, that’s not the point.
The goals you have in front of you take time. Weight loss or building a business are the same. You show up, have a plan, and execute the best you can. Check the results and try again with data backing the decision.
All the hours you spend staring at your phone or TV is what you are giving your life to, a feeling that REST and RELAXATION should have to look like a lazy, gluttonous, and deserved getaway to rest after stressful work.Instead, spend that time learning how to get away from your stressful shit job. Use that time to better your life instead of setting your brain on autopilot.
You are capable of a lot more. Less than 200 years ago people in this country loaded up wagons and headed west for the CHANCE of a better life. It’s not like better life was luxurious. It was still frontier times. They set out on that pursuit knowing that death will find them on the way. Not everyone will survive. They still did it. Still set out into the unknown with the best plan they had and started getting their hands dirty trying to build the life they wanted for themselves.
You have all the educational tools and information in your hand. And you choose to do jack shit with it. Make a different choice, just like those people did. Make a choice and go after it as if your life depends on it.
Nothing scares me more than waking up one day and wondering where my life went. “I thought I was doing the right thing”
Working a job that drains my soul.
Realizing I invested 35 years of my life to a company or system that will happily replace me as soon as I am out the door. In that time, you’re sacrificing countless experiences that could change your perspective on life. Banking on this time in the future to live out your dreams is bullshit.
Make moves now. Be intentional with your time everyday and you can create anything you continue to work at. Remove time restraints and expectations. Follow the intention of getting better at the skills that will allow you to be your best. Use your time or lose it. Literally. Every minute wasted is gone forever, and you will have no second chance at the moment.
Be intentional with everything you do. Focus on it. Give it everything you got for as long as you can. If that’s 10 min, or an hour keep doing it and get better. Hard is the way out of hell. Hell is feeling trapped without options. Live a life you didn’t realize you were capable of building.
