Sometimes We Need To Remind Ourselves We Are In Charge
Each day is an opportunity for us to wake up, utilize our health and focus on getting one percent better. That is the mindset needed in order to kick ass in life. If you are not taking advantage of your time, you are losing precious opportunities to get to where you want to go in life.
Right now, where ever you are reading this, I hope that it helps to provide some positive words and a clear perspective, reminding you that in life we are in charge.
Our decisions today, dictate where we end up 5 years from now.
The things that we achieve and do not achieve, is directly correlated with our mindset and our actions (or lack thereof).
The good news is that all of this can be created and cultivated if you really wanted to.
Here Are 6 Rules To Kick Ass In Life:
1. Know That Your Only Competition Is Who You Were Yesterday
Who you were yesterday should be your only competition.
Understand that yesterday is some of the best data that we humans have available to us. We can only connect the dots looking backwards, this means that we can use yesterday as a way to improve our today and our tomorrow.
When you begin to realize that charts and graphs only work in the rearview mirror, then you start to look at things differently.
You start to value yesterday more. Not to dwell on mistakes and missed opportunities, but to take the lessons of who you were yesterday, what decisions you made yesterday and apply those lessons to improve who you are today.
As humans, we want to compare ourselves to others to see where we stack up in comparison. We use other people and where they are within a given realm and we compare ourselves to those metrics. The problem with this approach is that we each have our stories. We are blessed individually with different assets. It is our responsibility to use those assets and develop them. Grow them into their full potential.
The most effective way to reach your full potential is to stop comparing yourself to others and start to challenge yourself to be 1% percent better than you were yesterday.
These small incremental steps add up over time with compound interest.
2. Earn, Save And Invest Before You Spend
Growing up, my parents would tell me to save my money, create piggy banks, open a savings and save your money when you can,,
You think I listened?
Nope. 👎
I wish I had though.. 🤔
Unfortunately, it was one of those things where I was too hard headed, infatuated with instant gratification and hooked on the dopamine hits that came from buying new sneakers and parts for my truck.
I spent thousands of dollars on worthless things. “It was my money”,—I thought to myself, and I should be able to enjoy the fruits of my hard work.
Besides, saving money was boring.
My parents would advise me to take the money that I had worked so hard for, and throw it into this “savings account” and then just do nothing with it.
I could be wearing some nice shoes, or a nice watch or driving a nice truck (which I was).
While I enjoyed these nice luxuries, I didn’t know that I didn’t deserve a-lot of the purchases I was making.
Like Jay-Z says: “If you can’t purchase it twice, you can’t afford it.”
Use your money wisely. I wish I had someone to coach me a bit better on this approach. Although I had people telling me to “save money”, I didn’t fully understand the importance down the line.
Learn to save for emergencies. Educate yourself on the importance of carrying zero debt and once you have an emergency savings established start investing your money into a Roth IRA each month until you retire.
It will require a sacrifice today, but it will pay off huge—years later when you are ready to retire or an emergency presents itself.
3. Avoid Negative People, Life Is Too Short
This is another piece of advice I wish I would have understood a lot sooner in my life. Over the years, I have felt the difference that can take place within yourself if you just avoid negative people.
From experience, I have realized that you will run into people who do one of two things when you are around them: 1) They take energy away from you and stress you out, or 2) They inject your life with positivity and strength, providing you energy.
I haven’t met someone who is in the in between. You are either a positive influence, or you have your own agenda but there is no middle ground.
We all have the power and say of where we put our own time and energy. Make all changes necessary to eliminate negative, toxic people out of your life.
Unfortunately, they do exist and they can bring negative energy to your life when you don’t need it.
4. If You Don’t Go After What You Want, You’ll Never Get it
I was listening to a podcast the other day and the guest was Cameron Hanes, an incredible story of a man who runs up a mountain by his home each day. The miles he runs each day, are marathon miles. A marathon is considered 26.2 miles — this man runs this everyday! 😳
Cameron was saying how a health professional advised him not to do that. “That type of training is going to destroy your knees, stop it.”
Fast forward 20+ years and Cam is still running his marathon and running up mountains on a daily.
The point, is that if you listen to other people and their own psychological perspectives and limitations, you will never reach your own full potential.
The limitations in the minds of others will impede how far you can take yourself.
Imagine, if Cameron Hanes listened to that person who told him to stop doing what he loved?
Imagine, where that one comment would have taken him, if he would have listened to someone else and not himself.
You have to have the confidence and self-belief to go after whatever it is that you want out of your life without letting the opinions of others to get get in your way. This is vital if you really want to kick ass in life.
5. See Failure As A Beginning, Not An End
How many people out there have been conditioned to see a mistake as a failure?
The amount of people who have started something and have quit, all because they reached a difficult point in their journey, is immense!
We quit, we stop, we move away from the things we started all because we see things as “too hard” or a “failure”.
Let’s get one thing straight. You only fail when you quit.
When you decide to go after something, that means something to you and you start, but then you stop because it is hard, or because you fell flat on your face, then you have failed.
You have failed yourself.
We will experience failures in our lives. It’s part of the way life works. Our mistakes and setbacks are opportunities for us to take accountability and grow from them.
When we reach mistakes, setbacks and difficult barriers in life, these are the moments where we need to remind ourselves that these are beginnings—not an end.
6. Our Habits Decide Our Future
This one right here, is the gold. If you are in the early stages of your life, you need to slow down for a minute and read this.
Your habits today, are 100% going to shape your future. The decisions that you make today, the investments of your time today, the habits you carry out today are going to take you to a destination.
In life we can only connect the dots looking backwards.
If you stop for a moment after you read this, and you look at where you are in your life at this very moment, you will see that what you did each day for the past 5 years has made you who you are today, and has brought you to where you are today.
The best advice that I can give to people, is to choose your habits wisely. Make an effort to cut bad habits out of your life by replacing them with better ones.
Become more mindful of how you are spending your time each day. Audit your mornings, your jobs, your career paths, your free time, your friends, the music you listen to, the books you read, the shows you watch, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your sleep etc..
Your habits today, shape your future.
If you are not happy with where you are in life right now. Understand, that you are responsible for everything and you can change the trajectory quickly, by changing how you spend your time.
